Weekend storm to bring heaps of snow to Rockies, northern Plains
As storm after storm impacts the West Coast, producing intense and flooding rainfall, power-outage-inducing winds and over a foot of mountain snow, AccuWeather meteorologists are tracking where the storm track will shift next. The answer: inland from the West Coast into the northern Rocky Mountains and far northern Plains.
Over the weekend, Arctic air blasted southward out of Canada into Montana and the Dakotas, setting the stage for the incoming storm to bring wintry conditions across the region. High temperatures on Saturday across portions of Canada, such as southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and far southwestern Manitoba, reached only into the teens and crested the lower to middle 20s Fahrenheit.
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Farther south into northern Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota, high temperatures will range from the teens and 20s F in the higher elevations and along the Canadian border. Deeper into the Front Range and North Central states, daytime temperatures will rise to only the 30s and 40s F for places like Rapid City, South Dakota, Denver, Colorado and Mankato, Minnesota.
Many locations spanning central and northeastern Montana, western Wyoming and far northern North Dakota, will pick up between 1-3 inches and 3-6 inches while larger totals are likely to pile up in the higher terrain of the Idaho and Montana Rockies and into southern Canada, where snow depths can range to 6-12 inches and even as high as 12-18 inches.
"The weekend forecast across the northern Rockies may have ski enthusiasts getting excited for fresh powder at area ski resorts as a storm is expected to bring a fresh round of snow. While a majority of the heaviest snow will fall north of the U.S. border, the potential for plowable snow exists across the far northern tier of the United States," explained AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham.
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The AccuWeather Local StormMax™ for this weekend storm is 30 inches, with the likelihood for the highest snowfall accumulations to occur across the southern Canadian provinces of southeastern Alberta and Saskatchewan.
"Aside from the immediate impacts felt from the snow falling this weekend, this storm will also help to lay out fresh snow and a gateway for colder air to flow out of Canada and into the United States right around the end of the month. Snow can act to keep temperatures at the surface lower than surrounding areas without snow cover, making it easier for cold Canadian air to retain its bitterly cold feel even as it presses well into the states," noted Buckingham.
Travelers hoping to navigate Marias Pass in Montana, at an elevation of over 5,200 feet, should closely monitor the ongoing weather conditions this weekend and prepare for alternative routes with upwards of a foot of snow expected along the corridor.
While the winter impacts from the storm began to wane Sunday morning across portions of Montana and the Rockies, but zones just to the east in the far northern Plains will have to wait until later Sunday night for the snow to taper off.
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Early this week, snowflakes can return to the Great Lakes region as a storm reorganizes over parts of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. Along the southern flank of the storm, periods of rain are expected to douse the Ohio Valley and eventually the Northeast as the system treks north and eastward. It will eventually swirl into southeastern Canada.
Along the West coast, forecasters warn that the train of storms and winter impacts will not come to an end just yet. The active pattern looks to continue early this week as well with another storm entering the West Coast.
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Buckingham noted that the next storm is expected to be focused farther south as it enters the West Coast to bring rain and mountain snow to Central and Southern California, the Great Basin and into the central Rockies between the end of the weekend and Wednesday of this week.
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