We started the month of November without much snow on the ground. 

Now, on November 23rd, snow is covering most mountains in the western US and Canada, as well as the northeastern US and Canada.

What a difference 23 days makes, eh?

The deepest snowpack right now is in western Canada. The western US has received decent amounts of snow during the last week, but they need to make up for a big deficit caused by the warm and dry weather in October and early November, so not much terrain is open just yet. It'll take a few more storms for most mountains to open a lot of runs.

In the northeast, a slow-moving storm brought 10-20 inches of snow to the higher terrain early this week, and the locals didn’t let it go to waste.

For the rest of Thanksgiving week, a few weaker storms will bring high-elevation snow and low-elevation rain to the northeast, and the storm train will continue for the Pacific Northwest.

Things are going to get interesting during the week after Thanksgiving.

A cold storm will likely bring snow to western Canada and the western US early next week. Once this storm moves east of the Rockies, it should track north toward the Great Lakes.

If the storm takes this track, it will allow very cold air to move into western Canada and the western US, and conversely, very warm air will move into the northeast ahead of the storm.

The resulting snow forecast below will closely match the temperature forecast above, with most of the snow falling in the west while, regrettably, the northeast will likely experience liquid, rather than frozen, precipitation.

In short, the week after Thanksgiving should be cool and snowy in the west and warmer and perhaps wet in the east. 

Looking ahead into early-to-mid-December, there are signs that the cool weather will stay in the west, and that the cool temperatures will push east and bring winter back to New England.

Thanks for reading, and have a great holiday week!

JOEL GRATZ

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