There are several storms in the pipeline for the rest of March that should deliver some great snows to many mountains.
Let’s start with our first storm getting going now in Colorado and New Mexico. A trough is developing over the Four Corners and that will throw moisture at Colorado’s Front Range. On top of this a Cold Front is rolling through that will provide a few inches of snow for most areas of Colorado.
This is really just a storm for CO and NM. Thanks to upslope flow the Front Range ski areas like Eldora, Loveland and Winter Park will do very well with this storm. Summit county will do decent but totals really drop off from Vail to Telluride but even in those locations, a couple of inches of snow is possible.
Snow will continue overnight into Thursday with a few locations picking up over a foot of snow possibly. Loveland, Winter Park and Eldora are all expected 8-12″ of snow. It will be a pretty dense snow for Colorado’s standards but nonetheless a nice ski day on Thursday and Friday expected. Taos and ski Santa Fe should get 4-6″ of snow from this storm through Thursday.
Our attention now turns to the next storm. It has the potential to drop fresh snow on many mountains and based on current signals, this may be a huge storm for the Front Range of Colorado. For Colorado, this is the time of the year where big snows happen along the Front Range.
This storm will start to drop snow on the Cascades as early as Saturday morning. This is a cool storm so snow levels should be sufficiently low. With this storm driving from the PNW to the southern Rockies, western facing slopes should get decent snows from this. Again, this storm really strengthens near Colorado so a potentially huge storm is expected there for Sunday to Monday.
Above is a look at snow totals Sunday morning, Monday morning and Tuesday morning as this storm progresses south and east. From Saturday to Sunday, up to 10″ of snow may fall on the Cascades near Stevens Pass and Mt. Baker. Mt. Bachelor and Mt. Hood should also get a nice refresh of snow with this storm.
From Sunday to Monday, freshies will be found from Jackson Hole to Alta. About 3-7″ is expected across the Wyoming and Utah mountains by Monday morning. Big Sky could also squeeze out a few inches from this storm.
The biggest totals will be in Colorado’s Front Range with this storm. A classic upslope storm is looking likely which means that Loveland, Winter Park and Eldora will be very chaseable by next week. Current models are showing 1-2 feet of snow for those areas with much less amounts west of the divide. Denver will likely pick up more than a half foot of snow from this too so it’ll be a good time to be near the Front Range. This is a good setup for Taos again too with a foot of snow not out of the question.
Past this, another storm looks likely dropping into Montana from the north. So as we head closer to the end of the month, prepare for another round of freshies.
Way early to tell specifics with this one but it looks like a good setup for widespread mountain snow from Utah to Idaho to Montana and Wyoming. Colorado will also benefit a lot from this regime. Lots to look forward to!
Powder Chaser Andy
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