Powderchaser Luke filling in once again for Steve this weekend. In my last post on March 21st, I mentioned that cold air is often hard to find in the Spring, and although the pattern has been active, the options for chasing have been limited due to a lack of cold air. Good news though, as the storm we are tracking this week features some colder air. The middle part of the week will feature a strong and fairly cold storm for the Rockies, with several places to chase! The pattern remains active following the mid week storm likely keeping chances for snow alive through next week.
The action will start tomorrow as a short wave trough moves into the Western US. It will be warm to start and amounts will be light until things ramp up in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming on Tuesday. Tuesday night into Wednesday the cold air will have moved, lowering snow levels allowing for decent totals to stack up. Expect 6-12 inches in the Tetons before the cold air moves in through Tuesday morning, followed by another 6-12” through Wednesday. Expect lesser amounts but still decent totals at Big Sky for this event. You can see the short wave trough moving into the West on Monday through Thursday below.
Utah
The main focus for this upcoming storm will be Utah. The storm will start Tuesday evening, possible as rain, before a strong cold front moves through, lowering snow levels to valley floors across Northern Utah. Snow will be possible from Tuesday evening through the end of Thursday, as a moist W/NW flow sets up over the area. LCC will be favored with 15-30” possible by Friday. Generally 8-16” can be expected in the other mountains of Northern Utah, including Park City Mountain Resort. We will refine these totals during the next few days. Both Wednesday and Thursday look like good days to be on the mountain, both offering considerable overnight totals. In the image below, you can see an extended period of NW winds along with a saturated atmosphere; a good combination for snow in Little Cottonwood Canyon.
The GEFS and CMCE are showing fairly significant totals for the LCC, as shown below.
The action will quickly move into Colorado on Wednesday and Thursday, favoring the NW part of the state, where 4-8” can be expected at Vail and other northern resorts. We are watching the next storm for later in the week, but right now the models do not agree on the location of this event.
Powderchaser Luke
