The Return of Winter in the West:

Following a lackluster December, a stormy pattern has set up across the West in early January and recent storms have produced deep snowfall from the Sierra to the Rockies. Check out the scene at Steamboat from this past Saturday:

The Northwest and Canada also received deep snow totals over the weekend with cold temperatures and low snow levels. Ski conditions have quickly been improving after a slow start to the season. 

Here is a shot from Red Mountain in Southern BC from Sunday:

Forecast for Mon (Jan 8) to Tue (Jan 9):

A powerful storm will impact the Northwest with deep snow totals expected across British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Northern Idaho. A storm will also impact the Mid-Atlantic on Tuesday but warm air will arrive with snow changing over to rain. Further west in Michigan and Wisconsin, precipitation should stay all-snow for most areas.

Check out these Daily Snows from our local forecasters for more details:

• British Columbia
• Washington
• Oregon
• Idaho

Forecast for Wed (Jan 10) to Thu (Jan 11):

The next storm will take a more southerly track with Oregon favored for the deepest totals, while Washington and the Northern Rockies will still pick up some good snow totals as well. The Sierra Nevada Range and Tahoe will also get in on the action, as will the Central Rockies.

A storm will move into the Northeast with heavy snow possible initially, but most areas will see a changeover to rain during the warm part of the storm, followed by a brief changeover back to snow showers at the end.

Check out these Daily Snows from our local forecasters for more details:

• Tahoe
• Utah
• Colorado
• Montana
• New England

Forecast for Fri (Jan 12) to Sat (Jan 13):

Another storm will move into the West during this period with the storm track likely favoring the Sierra, Southern Oregon, and Central Rockies while arctic air (and dry/frigid conditions) will be infringing upon the Northwest and Northern Rockies. 

Another storm with snow changing to rain is expected across the Northeast, while parts of the Great Lakes could see heavy snow on the colder side of the storm to the west – however, confidence is low in this latter solution as models are in poor agreement with the storm track.

Outlook for Sun (Jan 14) to Thu (Jan 18):

Models are in relatively poor agreement on next week's pattern, but the more likely solution is for an active pattern to continue across the West with the dominant storm track favoring the Sierra and the Central Rockies. Cold air will also spread eastward with storms likely producing a higher percentage of snow versus rain in New England and the Appalachians compared to what we're seeing this week. 

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

Alan Smith 

Track Hourly Snowfall From Nearby Weather Stations

Live Snow is our name for the latest hour-by-hour snowfall data that we pull from thousands of weather stations across the United States and Canada.

You can use this feature to see how much snow has fallen in near real-time rather than waiting for an "official" measurement from a resort or another data service which often only reports once per day.

1. Go to any location screen.
2. Tap the "Snow Report" tab.
3. View data from the closest weather station or...
4. Tap the "Weather Stations" tab to view all nearby data.

Please note that this is an experimental feature. Automated snowfall measurements from remote weather stations are sometimes difficult to interpret due to unreliable or "jumpy" data, and we do our best to programmatically remove inaccurate data.

Learn More → NEW: Live Snow (Experimental)