Mother Nature seems to have forgotten about the current strong El Nino and the record warmth of the past month.
Massive snow will fall over the western mountains from British Columbia to California.
The Northwest ski season will be saved.
Our snowpack will be restored
And some snowflakes may even reach sea level over western Washington.
Let me start by showing you the accumulated snow forecast from the UW WRF forecast model.
Below is the regional snow forecast through Saturday morning for the West Coast and Washington. Some areas in the Cascades and British Columbia Coast mountains getting more than two feet! But this is just a “warm up”
Now let’s examine the accumulated snowfall for the next ten days.
WOW. Massive increases in snow depth over the West Coast terrain from California to British Columbia, with some snow total reaching 2-4 feet.
A close-up view shows the Cascadex covered by a huge snowfall and eastern Washington receiving 1-2 ft.
The European Center model is doing the same thing (see the 10-day total below). Several locations getting more than 70 inches!
This massive snowfall is perfectly timed to enable a decent ski season.
So why are we getting this snowy period when there was so much gloom and doom about El Nino?
It all has to do with the upper-level flow pattern.
This Saturday, an upper-level trough of low pressure/low heights will be moving in (the 500-hPa pressure level, about 18,000 ft is shown). A ridge is found offshore. The Northwest is in cool northwesterly flow. A very favorable pattern for mountain snow around here.
And a much more energetic trough/low will come in late on Tuesday 9 January (see below)
This is NOT anything like an El Nino pattern, which is characterized by a deep low offshore.
And now the real shocker. The latest European Center 30-day forecast is for much colder than normal conditions for our region! (see below). We will get a lot of snow and will stick around.
Get your skis ready!
