Not quite like this yet, but maybe. Photo: Joshua Reddekopp//Unsplash
Hello fall, meet winter. That’s right, our friends at Powder Chasers – which tracks winter storms for skiers and riders – are calling for well over a foot of snow for parts of British Columbia, the Pacific Northwest, and a wide area of the Rocky Mountain region during the next week. Yes, the times, they are a changin’. After most of the Western U.S. and Canada enjoyed a mild start to fall, back-to-back storms could change the serenity and welcome an early winter.
From Powder Chasers: “Low pressure will begin to impact many areas of Canada by late this week and overspread the Pacific Northwest and northern Idaho by late Friday. The European model is pretty bullish for decent amounts by late Saturday (6-12) whereas the American GFS and Canadian are showing lower amounts (3-7). This overspreads northern and central Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado from late Saturday to Monday. There is model divergence on who sees the highest amounts with our confidence a bit better for the panhandle of Idaho, Central or southern Montana, and Colorado. The Tetons and Wasatch are solid wildcards, especially Utah where strong SW winds early in the storm migrate to NW and might kick in some good post-frontal precipitation. Colorado will likely do well-favoring areas west of the Divide and extending into the central and even southern mountains later this weekend.”
Overall, winter is getting a jump start in October, which can be a blessing, or a curse. If temperatures stay low and high pressure sets in, old snow can make for a dangerous avalanche layer that could potentially last an entire season in parts of the region. Or the trend could just continue with steady temps and precipitation, signaling an early winter that continues on into spring with consistent snowfall totals. We’d prefer the latter.
“Much lower temps this weekend,” continues Powder Chasers. “Snowfall for a wide area of the Rockies and PNW with some model divergence on amounts. It’s likely that our Powder Alert criteria of 12 inches or more is met by Monday, especially in the Rockies. A convergence zone (cold air with west, NW flow) might set up over the central Cascades at some point this weekend enhancing snow totals). The climate prediction center outlook from October 16-24 looks wetter than average in many areas of the West.”
Either way, let the hype train begin.
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