The big story is the firehose of moisture that will move from the Pacific Ocean through the central and the northern Rocky Mountains through about mid-December.

The snow forecast for Wednesday, December 8 through Sunday, December 11 shows that this moisture could produce 1-3 FEET of snow in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming, Colorado should also see hefty totals.

Also, the northeast will experience cool temperatures with a storm on Sunday.

This weather pattern is good news for almost all areas except for the extreme southwestern US and northwestern Canada.

The fun won’t end this weekend. Oh no. The fun should continue through at least December 16-18th as the weather pattern will not change much from its current form.

It’s a bit hard to appreciate how much snow might fall in the west from the maps above, so here’s another look. This is the University of Utah ensemble snow forecast for Snow Basin, a resort in northern Utah. That’s an average of 36 inches in 4 days.

Incredibly, this storm cycle will last much longer than the timeframe of the above forecast, which means that many parts of the western US (Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, Oregon) may receive more than 5 feet of snow during the next 10 days.

This weather pattern could not come at a better time. It will help to build the base for resorts in the west and the east, just in time for the busier holiday period.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

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