Pow Summary: Decent totals will ensure in New England into Thursday evening with denser snow qualities and wind. A colder system enters the west Thursday bringing moderate to decent depths to the Cascades, and especially the southern Sierra. That system overspreads the Rockies including Idaho with some significant snowfall. Cold temps will bring high quality.
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Forecast
New England models have up trended temps slightly with 33 to 34F along the NH/ME coast and lower 30's inland. Snow totals are likely to range from 11-15 inches for many resorts in New England with some outliers in the 12-20 inch range. Warmer temps might keep the totals on the lower side. Peak snowfall will be overnight Wednesday to Thursday afternoon (Interior Maine will extend into Thursday PM). The Good: Overnight snowfall into Thursday mid morning (Timing is prime). Double digits. The Bad: Denser snow quality with some sleet possible with warming later Thursday. Upper mountain areas might be decent mid density pow. Windy conditions might add to the density. Chase? Go for it, as it's not common to grab a deep storm in April but bring the fat skis. Pre Eclipse Powder will never happen again.
Below: Short term HRR showing total snowfall through later Thursday afternoon. 11-15 are common with isolated pockets of 20 inches possible in the highest terrain of southern Vermont, eastern New Hampshire (Conway) and western Maine. Snow will continue Thursday evening albeit lighter intensity.
Below: Temps Wednesday night in New England just above freezing along the coast and in the 29-32 degree range inland. Interior areas will see the highest totals. Temps will rise at some point on Thursday with sleet likely in the southern areas. The mountains will likely stay as all snow Thursday especially higher elevations. warming is noted for Friday.
Significant snow will move back to the west this week and into the weekend with lots of uncertainty in the models. This will bring multiple chase options.
WEST
A broad upper low will swing into many areas of the west this week into the weekend. I won't go into details by region but instead highlight some decent chase points with a few maps. Very cold temps will accompany this system with some high quality powder.
Below: Cold front overspreads the west later this week and pushes from the Sierra to the Rockies for the weekend (Low density snowfall).
Below: GFS snowfall totals through Sunday morning showing moderate totals this week for the Cascades and the Sierra Range. The Southern Sierra including Mammoth might come up with higher end totals by Thursday afternoon (9-15).
The GFS below is very optimistic for western Idaho this week (Brundage, Tam) with moderate totals noted for Sun Valley. Montana is bullish on the eastern ranges (GNP) with decent totals noted for the Montana Snowbowl or areas east. Red Lodge Mountain is also a strong contender. Whitefish will score decent totals. Utah will slowly build totals Friday to Sunday (Double digits) with some very high totals noted on the GFS for northern Colorado. The Tetons are in the 7-12 inch range.
Below: The European has a different solution. We still see moderate totals for the Cascades and slightly higher totals noted for the southern Sierra. Idaho and most of northern Montana are in play to be deep this week. Utah continues to show storm totals of 10-20 inches (2-3 day totals ending Sunday). This model pushes higher totals into the northern Wasatch range (Powder Mountain). Colorado comes up short on this model when compared to the GFS above. The Tetons are in the 5-10 inch range.
Below: Alta Ski area per the GFS shows several waves of 5-7 inches Friday/Saturday and perhaps 10 additional into Sunday. Storm totals might exceed 20 inches over the period. SW flow is noted on the models Friday-Saturday with NW flow later in the weekend (Can spell some surprises in many areas). Lake effect snow is also possible with the colder temps by Saturday night.
Below: U of U ensembles showing an average of 15 inches for Mammoth by Friday morning. There is uncertainty here with some lines in the 10 inch range and others as high as 18-20.
Bottom Line: There are many options to chase from west to east in the Rockies later this week into the weekend. Friday/Saturday might be the deepest for the Sierra and Idaho regions with Sunday the deepest in the core of the central Rockies. New England scores dense April Powder Thursday morning. Quality will be high in the Rockies with 15:1 snow ratios. You can chase powder from Thursday to Monday.
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