If you want to chase powder this week (January 2-5), there will not be much to chase, unfortunately. This is the snow forecast through January 5th. The only locations that might see deep totals will be downwind of the Great Lakes and also potentially along the east coast (depending on the exact track of the storm).

Thankfully, the calm weather across the west will reverse by the end of the week. A storm should bring snow across the west during the weekend of January 6-7, and there might be enough snow for legitimate powder days (6+ inches).

What will most likely occur is that we’ll see a few days of dry weather after this first storm over the weekend, and then a second storm will bring snow to the west coast of the US sometime between January 8-10. This second storm should move east to bring flakes to Colorado and New Mexico (not shown).

Bottomline - you should have a chance for powder days during the weekend of January 6-7 and again between about January 9-11.

As we head into the middle of January, most weather models hint that the dominant pattern of this winter will return, with cooler weather in the east and warmer weather in the west. There is a chance that storms will continue to head into the Northwest as well (smaller circle) and that’s something we’ll need to watch.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

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