JACKSON, Wyo. — Snow finally made an appearance in the Tetons over the previous 10 days with Sunday night’s storm depositing up to 12 inches of snow at JHMR. Arctic air arrived in the wake of the storm and will result in cold temperatures at all elevations for the next few days. A more active pattern with better snow chances will arrive in early March.
February 14-22 Recap
After an extended dry spell, the Tetons received a much-needed refresh of snow last week and over President’s Day weekend.
The first series of storms from February 15-18 favored the west side of the Tetons with Grand Targhee picking up 14 inches of snow over three days, while JHMR received 7 inches of snow on its upper mountain and 5 inches at mid-mountain.
A stronger storm then impacted the Tetons on Sunday night (February 19-20) and favored the east side of the Tetons with 10-12 inches of snow at JHMR’s upper mountain, 5 inches at mid-mountain, 11 inches at Surprise Meadow in GTNP and 4 inches at Grand Targhee.
The Town of Jackson finally saw an end to its dry spell during the Sunday night storm with 3.8 inches of snow recorded, and Snow King picked up 4 inches.
A final round of snow then moved through the Tetons on Monday night with 1-2 inches of new snow at JHMR and 4 inches at Targhee.
Despite the recent snowfall, the Rendezvous Bowl Plot at JHMR has still only received 25 inches of snow during the month of February, ensuring that we will end up well below the long-term February average of 74 inches.
Current snowpack in the Tetons as of February 23 ranges from 70 to 80% of average.
Temperatures last week were mild leading up to the Sunday night storm, and have been much colder since the Sunday night storm thanks to the arrival of arctic air.
The warmest temperature over the past seven days in Jackson was 44ºF on Saturday (2/19) and the coldest temperature was -9ºF on Wednesday morning (2/23).
The high temperature at Jackson on Tuesday was only 14ºF – although not confirmed yet by the National Weather Service, this appears to be a record low maximum temperature for the date, breaking the old record of 16ºF set in 2019.
Forecast for Wednesday (2/23) to Tuesday (3/1)
An arctic airmass has taken hold across Northwest Wyoming and we will continue to see very cold temperatures from Wednesday through Friday.
This is not an inversion pattern, either. Temperatures will be colder as you move up in elevation, so you will really want to bundle up if you plan on hitting the slopes over the next few days.
Wednesday will be slightly warmer than Tuesday with highs in the upper teens in the valley and low teens at 9,000 feet with scattered mid-level clouds.
A weak disturbance will then arrive from the northwest on Thursday along with a reinforcing shot of cold air. Highs will struggle to get above zero at 9,000 feet on Thursday and Friday and will be in the teens in the valley.
Scattered light snow showers will also develop on Thursday afternoon and Thursday night with new snow amounts ranging from 0.5 to 2 inches over the higher elevations of the Tetons.
Conditions will dry out on Friday with decreasing clouds. On Saturday and Sunday, we will see a significant warm-up across the higher elevations as high pressure builds over the Rockies and warmer air aloft arrives.
The warm-up will be more gradual in the valley on Saturday and Sunday as morning inversions will result in well-below-zero low temperatures in the valley. However, skies will be sunny through the weekend and by Sunday afternoon we should see valley highs topping out near or above freezing.
On Monday-Tuesday, a weak storm will approach from the west, bringing a chance of snow along with a continued warming trend. Snow potential remains uncertain as it’s possible most of the moisture stays north of Jackson, but we could pick up a few inches of higher elevation snow during this time.
As temperatures continue to trend warmer, light rain mixing in with snow also couldn’t be ruled out in the valley on Tuesday.
Extended Outlook
The second half of next week is looking more active as a stronger storm is possible sometime in the Wednesday (3/3) to Friday (3/5) timeframe.
Temperatures will continue to run mild through the middle of next week, but a cold front should arrive at some point during this next storm moves across the region, with colder temperatures to follow heading into the first weekend of March.
Alan Smith, Meteorologist
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