Before the forecast, please enjoy a few shots from last week’s ‘Powder Friday’ at Castle Mountain. (images courtesy of CMR)

Tuesday, March 25 – Wednesday, March 26 

A ridge of high-pressure tried but failed to build in across the Rockies as a stubborn but fairly weak trough remains in the upper atmosphere over Western Canada. A zonal flow will modify temps upward on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Most locations will see a sun and cloud mix at the beginning of each day with convective cloud build-up and isolated flurries developing during the warmer afternoon hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. Some spotty trace amounts of graupel are possible. 

Alpine high temps at 2000m on Tuesday and Wednesday look to be similar. For the mountains south of Banff, highs will range from 2C to 0C. For the SkiBig3 and Marmot Basin, highs -1C to -3C. 

Moderate SW winds, with gusts to 35 kph developing around any convective snow showers. Freeze levels on both days of around 2000m. 

Thursday, March 27 – Friday, March 28

A Pacific low-pressure system tracks inland across southern BC starting Wednesday night bringing cooler and unsettled weather back to the Alberta Rockies starting in the wee hours of Thursday morning. A second, but weaker wave of moisture arrives late Friday and Friday night. 

The first system looks to bring periods of light snowfall on Thursday into Thursday night for a possibility of 6 – 15 cm at Nakiska, the SkiBig3 resorts, and Marmot Basin through the first chair on Friday morning. Trace amounts to 5 cm are possible at Castle. Freeze levels look to dip to around 1400m, so alpine temps will stay below freezing on both days.  

On Friday, cloudy with isolated flurries as unsettled skies continue through the day. The second shortwave looks to arrive Friday evening/night which could add another 3 – 5 cm at most resorts by Saturday morning. We’ll have a better idea of the details of both of these systems in Wednesday morning’s post.

The blend of models for snowfall from 1 AM Thursday through 5 PM Friday looks favorable for Sunshine, Lake Louise, and Marmot Basin.  

After some residual flurries on Saturday morning, an upper ridge is favored to move in later on Saturday drying the skies across the Rockies for Sunday, and likely continuing into the beginning of next week.

Temps appear to rise to above-average readings bringing back full-on spring conditions from Saturday afternoon through next Tuesday. 

Thanks for reading. The next update will be on Thursday morning. 

Until then,

Powder Out,  

Bob 

You can now get a good idea of the upcoming snow quality for the next storm via our new "Snow Ratio" forecast for any location in OpenSnow.

When we talk about snow quality, such as “light and fluffy” or “heavy and wet”, we are talking about the snow-to-liquid ratio. The higher the snow-to-liquid ratio, the lighter the snow quality, and vice-versa.

1. Go to any location screen and tap the "Snow Summary" tab.
2. Scroll down to the 5-day hourly or 10-day forecast section.
3. View the 5-day hourly or daily "Snow Ratio" forecast for the next 10 days.

10:1 will be fun but will feel a little heavy. 15:1 will offer some faceshots and feel pretty light. 20:1 will be incredibly light, almost like skiing through nothing but air.

This new feature is currently available with the latest version of the OpenSnow iOS app installed (App Store > OpenSnow > Update) or on the OpenSnow website (OpenSnow.com). It will be available in the OpenSnow Android app soon.

View → Snow Ratio Forecast