It’s Groundhog’s Day! Perhaps the most “celebrated” weather day of the year….but it really has less to do about the groundhog and more to do about the fact that February 2nd is the midway point of the Winter Season. According to folklore, if the day is sunny and the groundhog (otherwise known as a woodchuck … Continue reading Groundhog’s Day →

A steady and sometimes powerful Westerly flow brought the bulk of the snowfall between Wednesday January 18th and Saturday January 21st , 2012. Storm totals for the entire 7-day period from last Monday morning, January 16th thru this Monday January 23rd 2012 were pretty impressive, with around two feet of snow falling in the valley … Continue reading This January Storm Cycle →

We haven’t really seen much change in the weather pattern over the Western United States over the last 8-weeks, with the exception the New Year’s Weekend storm. But, it finally, it looks like we’ll see some changes beginning next week. First indications that a strong Westerly flow will develop from the eastern Pacific across the … Continue reading Snow in the Future →

The Winter Season officially begins Wednesday December 21st, 2011 at 10:30 pm MST. As we enter the Fourth Quarter of the Month of December, I know quite a few people in the Mountain West are wishing for snow, but please remember, I am not the Tim Tebow of meteorologists! I’d like us to finish strong … Continue reading Winter Solstice →

A fair mount of excitement was generated earlier this fall when word got out that we were going to continue with a “La Nina” again this winter. However, not all La Nina’s are created equal and this year’s La Nina is weaker than last years. Map comparing area of cold Sea Surface Temps (SST) around … Continue reading Comparing La Nina’s →

Usually by around Halloween skiers start thinking more about winter than they are about fall sports. If you remember last year at this time the Northern Rockies were already blanketed with 2 to 3 feet of snow between October 23 & 26, 2010 and people were backcountry skiing like it was early December. Yesterday I … Continue reading Where is All the Snow? →

It has arrived, the first snow of the season, and it is only Oct. 6th. An unusually cold Low pressure system covering most of the Western U.S. with a huge counter-clockwise circulation around it, brought snow this morning to the valley floor in Jackson Hole. Generally about 2 inches in the valley, with maybe 6 … Continue reading First Snow of the Season!….and La Nina Update →

This time of year the most popular question I get asked is, “What kind of winter do you think we’ll have?” My standard response is, “Snowy!” The real question though on everyone’s mind is, exactly how snowy will it be? After all, more snow equates to a better ski season. So, the real quest is … Continue reading The Outlook for this Winter →

The Lightning Detection system I spoke of in the last MountainWeather Blog is now up and running and working pretty well. “Live” lightning strike data is now available for Jackson Hole and it can be viewed by going to mountainweather.com and clicking on the Lightning Map under the Jackson Hole drop down menu. Or, just … Continue reading New Lightning Map for Jackson Hole →

It was one year ago today, July 21st , 2010 when a series of thunderstorms pounded the Grand Teton with an abundance of lightning, injuring 17 people, and causing the death of one other climber when he was knocked off the mountain. The amazing story of this incident and the ensuing rescue of the victims … Continue reading Lightning Safety →