Alpine weather forecast

A white April Fools!

Mother nature is delivering treats as opposed to tricks for April Fools this year with a second dump of snow in three days. Our latest snow started around midnight Wednesday and will continue until sundown. While not as plentiful as Monday’s system, we can still expect an additional 5-8 cm of relatively fluffy snow by day’s end. Furthermore, winds will be notably lighter from the east at 10-20 km/h enabling the snow to accumulate rather uniformly across the region. Winds will veer to the northwest in the wake of the low Wednesday night and remain light allowing a crisper air mass to move in with an overnight low approaching -15C in the mountains.

After a cloudy morning, the stout April sun is briefly scheduled for Thursday afternoon thanks to strong high pressure building over the centre of the province. Winds will be light and the mercury will climb to -3C in the alpine with melting snow likely on steep south aspects. A proper refreeze will occur Thursday night as temperatures fall to -12C. Believe it or not, yet more snow is on tap for Friday!

A Colorado Low will reach the Great Lakes early Friday then track southeast towards southern Maine in the afternoon. Once again, the Chic-Chocs will escape the warmth, and all mixed precipitation will remain well to our south. With 15-25 cm more snow, temps near -7C and moderate southeast winds of 30-50 km/h, it will be a veritable winter storm in April! Snow will ease off Friday evening before the sun returns on Saturday. We should see clearing fairly early in the morning with more direct and prolonged sun on Saturday allowing temperatures to climb to +2C in the mountains. All the new snow will inevitably soften at all elevations and on all aspects. You will want to take advantage of the fresh, softening new snow as the pattern takes a warmer and likely wetter flavour come Sunday. It remains to be confirmed but the next storm looks to arrive with strong southerly winds that will drive the freezing level way up above 2000 metres and rapidly switch the falling snow to rain. But things could very well change. Come back Friday morning for our next forecast!

Forecast Confidence :

Confidence remains good with the additional snowfall amounts this week, both Wednesday and Friday. The trickier part of the forecast is the amount of sun vs cloud we will see on Thursday and Saturday. It may very take longer to clear on Thursday, helping to delay and reduce the amount of warming. More widespread and longer last sun is expected on Saturday which will transform all the new snow rather quickly. Be sure to get it while you can!