The Cascades of Washington State are not often known for “blower” powder, but the temperature was cold enough this past Saturday for just that. Here is Powderchaser Steve at Crystal Mountain on Saturday, December 10th.

The snow forecast map for this week is a thing of beauty. Most of the western US will receive another 1-2 feet of snow. California will receive a lot of precipitation, but the snow level will be quite high, so only the highest elevations will receive significant snow. In the northeast, the cool weather will continue for most of the week with powder on Monday morning and another storm of rain or snow later in the week.

During the upcoming weekend, December 17-18, the storm track will shift a bit. The northeast will likely see a storm with a mixture of rain and snow while the snow in the west shifts northward from the US into Canada.

It’s quite hard to predict snow totals more than about 7-10 days into the future, but the predictions for temperature can be more accurate.

Looking to next week, December 19-23, the long-range temperature outlook shows cool (and likely stormy) weather for the western US and Canada while the northeast trends toward more average temperatures.

Since next week is the week before Christmas, the forecast for December 19-23 is important because it will help determine the conditions for the holiday season.

Most of the western US and Canada should be in good shape for the holidays due to a deep base and cool temperatures. In the northeast, we’ll have to wait and see how the storm track shapes up – this will determine if storms bring enough cold air for snow to fall, or if warm air invades and causes precipitation to fall in its liquid form.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

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