An Arctic Outbreak; Heavy Lake Effect Snow in the Great Lakes Region

An Arctic outbreak of cold air will expand south and east from the northern Plains through the Midwest and persist into next week. Dangerously cold wind chills are expected in the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest. Heavy lake-effect snow bands and snow showers have developed downwind of the Great Lakes, and will continue into next week. Travel could be very difficult to impossible. Read More >

So we are about a month out from when the snowpack reaches its normal peak depth and theoretically should contain the most liquid or snow water equivalent (SWE). The normal date for this peak in Colorado is April 9th and in Utah April 4th but the actual peak date varies in any given water year.

This time series graph of snowpack for Colorado shows the current (dark blue) state of the SWE compared to normal (red) and 2017 (blue). As of March 5th the snowpack in the State of Colorado was 69% percent of normal and 52% of what it was on this date in 2017.

Here is a similar graph for Utah, again not a lot of good news.

Below is a visual map of SWE made using ground, airborne and satellite data comparing the snowpack of the past two years on March 5th.

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An Arctic Outbreak; Heavy Lake Effect Snow in the Great Lakes Region

Comparison of the March 5th Snowpack of 2018 vs 2017 across Utah and Colorado