A warm, windy midweek storm cycle across the Northern Rockies will be followed by a sharper cool-down late week, improving snow quality as snow levels crash and temperatures tumble. Early light snow favors the Canadian Rockies, then a milder surge Wednesday night through Friday brings higher snow levels and denser accumulations at many Idaho and Wyoming resorts before a colder Friday night into Saturday finish drops snow levels to the valley floors and boosts SLRs into much fluffier territory;
A warm, moisture-loaded pattern dominates the Northern Rockies this week, favoring deep but often dense midweek snow in the BC interior and Tetons, then gradually shifting to colder, higher-quality powder in the Canadian Rockies as we head into the weekend. Snow levels start quite high with this event, so the best accumulation focuses on upper-mountain terrain, especially at Big White, Revelstoke, and the higher Teton and southwest Montana peaks, while valley bases see more rain or heavy, wet snow.
General Pattern: La Niña conditions are expected to persist through winter, favoring a split temperature pattern across the US. Colder Areas: Below-normal temperatures are favored from the Upper Mississippi Valley, Northern and Central Great Plains west to the Northern Rockies and parts of the Pacific Northwest. Early December is likely to be colder-than-normal in the Midwest and northern states due to atmospheric patterns including a negative Arctic Oscillation and a modulating Madden-Julian Oscillation.
