Western Warmth and Eastern Cold

October has been unseasonably warm and dry for most of the West so far, but it's been a great couple of weeks for fall hiking, biking, and leaf peeping in the Rockies while the Northwest is in greater need of moisture where a number of late season wildfires continue to burn. On Sunday, Seattle recorded its latest 80-degree day on record, and got all the way up to 88ºF, just barely missing the all-time record for October.  

The East has been in a cooler pattern relative to average so far in October, and this trend will become more amplified this week as an early-season cold snap takes hold with hard freezes expected throughout the Appalachians. Higher elevations of the Appalachians will see a little bit of snow this week as well, while the UP of Michigan will see heavy lake-effect snow.

Forecast for Mon 10/17 – Tue 10/18:

A strong cold front will move across the East on Monday and Tuesday, resulting in showers, thunderstorms, and light amounts of high elevation snow across the Central Appalachians. Meanwhile, a storm system will impact the Great Lakes region with a mix of rain and snow, including heavy snow across the UP of Michigan.

Out West, a cut-off low pressure system (meaning it's cut off from the main storm track) across the Southwest will result in light rain showers on Monday, including some high elevation snow in New Mexico and Southwest Colorado. 

Warm and dry conditions will persist across the remainder of the Contiguous Western U.S. and Canada during this period, while an active storm track will result in heavy snow across Southeast Alaska. 

Forecast for Wed 10/19 – Thu 10/20:

Cold air will take hold across the East during this period with additional snow showers expected across the higher elevations of the Appalachians along with lake effect regions. Alaska will continue to get pounded with heavy snow, while the rest of the West will stay warm and dry. 

Fri 10/21 – Sat 10/22:

A significant pattern change will take hold on Friday night and Saturday as the West will finally start to see some snow along with much colder temperatures. The Northwest and Northern Rockies will be favored initially, while the Sierra, Wasatch, and Colorado Rockies could start to see some snow on Saturday as well.

Outlook for Sun 10/23 – Thu 10/27:

Next week, we will see a reversal of the pattern from recent weeks with below-average temperatures across the West and above-average temperatures across the East. An active storm track is expected out West during this period as well, with a high likelihood of snow across most of the major ski regions. At the moment, the storm track looks to be most favorable across the Northwest and the Northern/Central Rockies. 

Thanks so much for reading! Next update on Wednesday (10/19).

ALAN SMITH

We just updated the OpenSnow iOS and Android app with a SUPER cool new feature called Forecast Anywhere.

You can now get the forecast for any location on Earth (that's on land). You can also save these custom points to view on your Favorites screen.

This means that you can get the forecast for the exact location of your next adventure, or your secret powder stash, or yes - even your house. Every custom point is private and nobody will see your point except you, so your secret powder stash will be safe.

Tap here for a quick visual step-by-step guide about how to use Forecast Anywhere.

The Forecast Anywhere functionality is live now on our iOS and Android apps (if you don't see it, please update your app), and it will be live on our website in the coming weeks.

Download → OpenSnow.com/app