Today we expect cloudy skies and lingering snow showers this morning, mostly light, becoming mostly cloudy this afternoon with just some flurries for 49N, Mt Spokane and Schweitzer, and continuing snow accumulations and cloudy skies for Silver Mountain and especially Lookout Pass into Missoula/ Kalispell, as a moderately strong and fast moving shortwave low pressure system exits the area, with a southwest flow aloft continuing.

On Tuesday we expect another storm to move in, but this one looks much stronger and loaded with moisture (over 1" of precipitable water), with snow levels touching 5,000 feet during heaviest precip late Tuesday. Heavy snow totals are expected (1 to 2 feet across the mountains), a BIG powder day is expected to be announced Wednesday morning!

On Wednesday we expect lingering snowfall from 49N and Mt Spokane to Schweitzer in the morning, clearing pretty fast with some sunshine after noon, plus colder temperatures and strong winds, low wind chills so bundling up with layers is a good idea. For Silver Mountain and Lookout Pass, expect snow to continue through the day, and after 18" or so at Lookout, expect an additional 2-4" on a colder Wednesday. Great conditions are expected, but be prepared for wind and blowing snow as low pressure exits.

On Thursday we expect some sunshine under a high pressure ridge and milder temperatures, but mostly cloudy skies with some snow showers expected at times due to weak disturbances passing through overhead.

Friday we expect another shot of (this time) moderate to heavy snow (maybe 4-8" across the region, 8" for Lookout) from a fast moving and not as moist storm system, with snow falling through the day and overnight, and THEN some nice freshies on a mostly sunny Saturday!

WOW: LONGER RANGE (through the holidays):

Sunday and Monday we are expecting a BIG storm, with a subtropical moisture tap as this large-scale low pressure system, moving in out of a major trough over the Gulf of Alaska, carries in strong southwest wind flow and deep moisture from southwest of Tahoe right across into the region. Snow levels will likely hover near 4,000 feet, for some great, dense base-building snow. Following this, after a 1/2 day of reprieve, another significant looking system moves in, followed by another day of respite and another storm, right up until around the 23rd or so, setting up the Christmas and New Year holiday with amazing conditions! We do not hype weather, though this may sound like it, its just looking this good! These are systems coming from a longer fetch from across the Pacific, for some more moisture and powder day potential, currently hammering Niseko, Japan...

Toward the NEW YEAR and beyond... Around Christmas we do expect some sunshine mixed with COLDER air and lighter, powdery  snow at times... So we expect  great skiing and riding for the family. Around the New Year we expect another period of "busy" weather, with energy across the Pacific looking strong, coming off east Asia, so we do expect some of these storms to affect the western US, including the Inland Northwest. We put out a REALLY long range forecast back in September, and it pretty much materialized (http://snowforecast.com/inland-northwest). CM

Mostly light additional snow, then a mostly sunny weekend, and  more snow next Tuesday and Wednesday (heavier)!

HOW ARE WE DOING (please contact chris@snowforecast.com or comment below)? Let us know please...

Light snow for most areas including Aspen, and  across southwest Colorado...

-The latest storm absolutely dumped RAIN and snow across southern California, is headed mainly along the Mexico border now, and taking a southern track... El Nino style, with a few" of snow across southwest Colorado to Aspen's mountains, under a moist southwest flow of moisture across the mountains, while most energy passes to the south

This coming weekend we expect a high pressure ridge to build in, with cooler air dragged into Colorado initially on Saturday, as the southern tracking low pressure system exits (northwest/ north flow of winds from the colder north), and sunshine pops through in the then drier air... Powder + sunshine, what Colorado is known for!

LONGER RANGE:
It looks like El Nino is not an official anomaly yet, as I expected in my September LR forecast (for Aspen and SW Colorado / For northern Colorado resorts) so we are in an ENSO Neutral phase, though in the latest update from NOAA, we are seeing warming waters, still a weak El Nino at best. This may explain the more southerly tracking storm systems we have seen, and will likely see in the coming weeks of December and January. CM

Next week, the 11th onward, we expect a couple of snow storms and some moderate to significant snow for western Colorado. Because these look like strong and cold systems (ask Niseko, Japan) with a good fetch of moisture across the Pacific, they are capable of good snowfall across all of western Colorado if the track is right (a bit more north). It looks like 2 storms total for next week, one Tuesday/ Wednesday and another late next week. CM

(NO CHANGE from the last LR update) : It is looking like we may see a busy time as we approach the Christmas and New Year holiday period, with some significant storms possibly lining up to affect all of the western US including Colorado... We expect to see a 7-14 day period of down time and mostly sunny skies following this series of storms, that may start around/ after Christmas. In January we see that down time to start the month (a week-ish), then storms should kick in again on a more regular basis, but possibly favoring northern resorts this time as the east coast gets hit hard and these systems brush mainly northern Colorado. More updates are coming. Do you have any ideas on what you want to see in our discussions? Please contact through the site! We do not charge for any of our info, and have been providing it all for free since 1998, "Predicting Sick Days since 1998"! CM