(Updated Wednesday, Feb 08) - After a relatively mild storm hits Tahoe Thu-Fri (snow level issues) and moves across the west through Friday and Saturday (snow level issues for Utah [~below 8,000ft] and Colorado [~below 9,000ft] also), we expect 5-7 days of high pressure and sunshine mostly dominating the Western US. If you have been looking forward to some spring-like snow surface conditions ("corn"), sunny skies, and on mostly great base depths, this is looking like a good time frame to head out to your favorite resorts.

This coming weekend (11th/ 12th) it looks like high pressure ridging holds across the western US, through much of next week. Resorts like Squaw Valley, Alta, Canyons, Aspen, Telluride, Taos Ski Valley, and north to Big Sky and Jackson Hole will see some spring-like weather and plenty of sunshine this weekend and most of next week. The Cascades and northern Rocky Mountains, and Colorado, may be clipped mid next week (15th roughly) by a light snowfall, otherwise tranquil weather is expected [Changes coming...]

By the 17th/ 18th, next weekend, we see a strong and consolidated jet stream start pushing in across the west coast, and eventually the rest of the western US into the following week, with a renewal of snowpack building storms, colder this time around than recent systems (milder mid-Pacific influence on recent storms has caused annoying snow level issues). There may be a very long fetch of moisture, in fact, from San Francisco to south of Japan (!!!), which would cause a lot of moisture to be available. This unsettled pattern should last through much of the rest of February. CM