Weekly North America Forecast – Canada & Central-Southern Rockies Favoured as Storms Shift North to South
Written Wednesday, 25th February (Pacific Standard Time)
After a slow January and early February, Western North America has been making a comeback, and there’s still plenty of juice left in the season. An active storm cycle over the last week has brought deep, widespread powder across the West, and BC and Alberta will continue to see good snowfall on Thursday and Friday before the cycle finally quiets down, leaving dry, settled conditions for a bit.
A weak storm will then set up across the central and southern US this weekend, bringing light snowfall to the Sierras and moderate falls to the Rockies, though snowlevels will be high. A cold front escaping out of the north on Wednesday will bring another shot of snow to Canadian resorts down to the Sierras and northern US Rockies.
Thursday 26th & Friday 27th February
Stormy west-to-southwesterlies in the north will bring moderate to heavy snowfall to BC and Alberta across Thursday and Friday. Most resorts will score around 15-35+ cm, with Revelstoke and interior BC in general favoured for the deepest totals. Temperatures won’t be particularly cold, so rain will affect the lower terrain, but they’ll trend colder on Friday, especially in Alberta and near the main divide of the Rockies.
The US will be largely dry and settled under high pressure during this period. However, light snowfall leftover from a previous storm will linger in Utah and Colorado into Thursday morning.
Saturday 29th February & Sunday 1st March
A weak storm will set up across the central US this weekend, bringing mostly light snowfall to the Sierras, Wyoming, and northern Utah and Colorado, though locally heavier falls are expected. Again, snowlevels will be high, and it’ll be wet on terrain below 2500-3000m. Between 5-20cm is expected with the Rockies favoured.
Further north, dry, settled weather will dominate. But a new storm in the far north will bring more snow to northern BC and the southern half of Alaska’s Panhandle.
Monday 2nd to Wednesday 4th March
The storm across the central US will gradually shift eastward throughout this period, causing remaining light snowfall to dry up in the Sierras on Monday. More substantial, moderate snowfall in the central Rockies will then become confined to Colorado and New Mexico by Tuesday night, where there could be heavier falls for a brief period before things also dry up here on Wednesday.
Continuous storms in the far north will keep the powder tap open over northern BC and the Alaska Panhandle throughout this period. On Wednesday, a cold front will escape further southward to deliver a light-to-moderate shot of powder to resorts in southern Canada, the Cascades, Sierras and northern US Rockies.
That’s all from me today, folks. Have a great week, and I’ll see you back here next Thursday for another weekly rundown of North America’s highlights and snowlights.
Grasshopper
