Dust off the pontoons and set back your bindings because old man winter is returning starting Monday and he want to make up for January.  By this time next week the ridge will be a distant memory as we are once again buried in fluffy powder along with cold temps.  A strong low pressure is going to move into the Northeast Pacific on Monday and push the ridge to our East.  This will allow moisture to rotate around the low and into CA most of next week. 

Snow could start falling on Alpine as early as Monday afternoon as moisture is drawn up ahead of the trough approaching the coast.  Snow will start off light and then increase in intensity as the jetstream approaches the area on Tuesday.  Tuesday night into Wednesday the cold front moves through bringing the heaviest snow of the week and drops temps into the teens and 20′s.  That will increase snow ratios to around 20:1 which means the snow will become very fluffy and start to pile up really fast.  By Thursday morning Alpine could have a storm total of around 2-4 feet.

The snowfall will become light and intermittent going into Thursday as we are in the wake of the cold front but still under a moist and unstable flow.  Models differ in opinion on the track & intensityof a second wave of moisture arriving later in the week.  Some want to take the moisture to our South and others bring another round of snow that could add a foot or more to the totals.  Either way the pattern looks to stay cold and unsettled into President’s Weekend.

Looking at ski week it appears that another strong low pressure may setup in the same position in the Northeast Pacific and we could see a repeat of cold and snow.  We are in a -PNA(Pacific North American) pattern now so any ridging should be brief and the storm door will remain open into the end of the month.  It’s going to look and feel a lot different around here next week.  I will update the storm details and snowfall totals as we get closer.