Powder Alert

Hey skiers and boarders, welcome to March, and what is often, in my humble skiing opinion, the best ski month of the year. Why? Three reasons:

• Deepest snowpack
• Longer days
• Crowds tend to thin out
• Still getting good cold snow

And boy, that last reason is certainly the biggest, given this season.  On to the forecast:

As I write, I’m watching the snow fall at Timberline Lodge, at 6,000 feet on Mt. Hood. Always a welcome sight. The cold front moving in now is taking its sweet time, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it may prolong the period of snowfall and therefore bring higher amounts of new snow to the state.

All areas from Mt. Hood to Willamette Pass will receive between 3 to 8 inches of new snow overnight, with the heavier amounts favoring Central Oregon.  Wednesday (March 4) will be an excellent day for freshies.

But my powder pick is Thursday. That’s because it will snow through the day on Wednesday and Wednesday night. So, there will be more new snow, falling at colder temperatures, by Thursday morning.

If you’re skiing on Wednesday, it will be snowing most of the day. Staying near the trees can give better depth perception and visibility—beware of obstacles and tree wells, as always.

But I’m picking Thursday as the day because 6 to 10 inches of snow should fall on Wednesday, with another 3 to 5 inches on Wednesday night. Thursday may end up being one of the best days of the season so far.

And I say so far because, as I alluded to at the beginning, March usually delivers. And next week looks promising. I’m not completely buying into the awesome accumulated snowfall forecasts shown below, because we’ve been teased with this several times this winter. The Snow Gods have come through a few times, but not even close to every time.

It looks promising for heavy snowfall through Oregon’s mountains next week, but it’s not a sure thing. But even the usually more conservative European model (ECMWF) is dropping nearly 30 inches of new on Mt. Hood. The GFS (American) model is colder and more aggressive, and the last graphic, the WRF (weather research and forecasting) model, is also showing substantial snowfall.

Right now, I’d bet on the middle of next week, after a warm and mainly dry weekend, being really good, too. There’s still good skiing to be had this season!

Finally, a shout out to the mountain crews that are doing a lot to make the runs as good as possible.  I haven’t skied all the resorts (yet) this season, but I’ve been impressed with the work the crews have done to make the most of what we have. Give them a shout out when you see them, if you agree.

See ya on the slopes!