Jackson Hole remains in a very active and snowy pattern heading into the week of January 13th. Weekend snow totals from Friday night through Monday morning ranged from 24-29 inches in the Tetons above 9,000 ft. and 5-10 inches in the Jackson Hole Valley. January 2020 has been quite a month so far with new snow falling nearly every day so far this month. Here is a look at snow totals from last weekend across the Northwest U.S.
Since January 1st, the Rendezvous Bowl plot at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, located at an elevation of 9,580 feet, has recorded 102 inches of snow! This is very impressive considering that this location averages 84 inches of snow for the entire month of January.
The January record for snowfall at the Rendezvous Bowl plot, dating back to 1974, is 150 inches. It will be interesting to see how close we get to that record moving forward, considering we are only 13 days into the month.
The upcoming week will start out the way the past week ended – cold and snowy, and also windy. Light snow will continue through the day Monday, with gusty southwest winds resulting in blowing snow and poor visibility on the roads. Snow will pick back up again later Monday afternoon and into Monday night as the next system arrives, with 24-hour snow amounts through Tuesday morning ranging from 6-12 inches in the Tetons and 3-7 inches in the valley.
Temperatures will remain cold with highs on Monday in the upper teens to low 20s in the valley and in the single digits at 9,000 ft.
Here is a look at the jet stream position Monday morning. As the stronger jet stream level winds approach the Tetons later Monday, snowfall rates will pick up across Jackson Hole.
Heavy snow will continue through Tuesday morning and into Tuesday afternoon, before tapering off to lighter snow Tuesday night. Additional snow amounts Tuesday through Tuesday night will range from 5-9 inches in the Tetons and 2-4 inches in the valley. Highs Tuesday will be in the mid to upper 20s in the valley and in the low to mid teens at 9,000 ft. Winds will be even stronger on Tuesday out of the west/southwest, which will make for challenging travel conditions.
The strong winds combined with new snow will continue to result in elevated avalanche danger in the backcountry. Avalanche danger is currently rated as HIGH by the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center.
Light snow will linger into Wednesday, then a break in the pattern will occur from Wednesday afternoon into Wednesday night, with some peeks of sunshine possible Wednesday afternoon.
The final storm of this active pattern will arrive later Thursday and continue into Friday with the heaviest snow expected Thursday night as a trough of low-pressure approaches from the west.
This storm will be faster-moving with roughly a 12-24 hour window of moderate to heavy snow. The storm will also be coming in warmer compared to recent storms, so the snow will be a little bit higher density than what we have seen recently. Colder air arriving Friday will mean that the latter part of the storm will shift back to drier, lower density snow.
The late-week storm will be the last one of this exceptional pattern. As we head into the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, high pressure will start to build across the Western U.S., leading to much drier conditions. As the weekend progresses, inversions are likely to develop with warmer temperatures at the higher elevations and colder temperatures in the valleys.
Alan Smith, Meteorologist
