Kicking Horse, December 20th
Kicking Horse, December 20th
North America Overview

It's been a week of improvements across North America in almost all regions. The big change for the better is currently underway along the Pacific coast. It's the first of a series of storms set to continue over the next few days, which will hopefully bring snow rather than rain to lower elevations right down to California, and potentially five feet or more of it for some, really transforming conditions from the almost snowless state up to now.

Resorts have started opening and reporting up to 48 inches in 48 hours, so it's looking promising initially. Not so much will make its way to the Rockies, but things are slowly improving here too on the US side of the border, whilst on the Canadian side, up to a metre more snowfall has been reported, so steep and deep terrain is go. On the East Coast, a warm weather blip ended last week, but it's been back to mostly cold and snowy since.


Western Canada Snow Report and Ski Conditions

Things seem to keep getting better in western Canada, with inland British Columbia and Alberta ski areas widely reporting up to 40 inches of snowfall over the past seven days. It's powder all around, along with the highest percentages of terrain and deepest snowpacks in western North America. The Pacific coast had previously been excluded from this good news, but now, whilst still not back to normal, rain has turned to snow at lower levels.

This has allowed resorts like House Mountain to finally open and North America's biggest, Whistler Blackcomb, to edge past a third of its terrain open, with 38 inches of snowfall in the past seven days. Back inland, resorts like Marmot Basin and Sunshine in Alberta now have enough snow cover to open their steep and deep terrain for the first time this season.

7-Day Weather and Snow Forecast

More cold weather is forecast as Pacific systems feed regular snowfall into British Columbia's Coast and Interior ranges. Alberta remains colder and slightly drier, though Banff, Sunshine and Lake Louise still see light snow at times. Freezing levels remain at or below valley floors, with alpine temperatures often very cold.

(More here)