Now that the turkey leftovers have run out and too much football has been watched, it’s time to seriously plan some powder days, right?

Let’s start in central Oregon, where Mt. Bachelor got the goods Monday. A persistent but small area of snowfall parked over the central Cascades dumping over a foot and bringing Mt Bachelor’s base to 37” with 52” reported at mid-mountain. That’s a lot more than anyone else in the state and Bachelor’s high base elevation will help preserve it.

So what’s ahead? Not much below 6,000 feet through the weekend. A few weak weather systems will spin up and through Oregon but since it’s coming from the southwest it means the snow level will stay up around 6,000 feet. So a few inches will plaster the higher slopes Friday and over the weekend, but nothing major until after next week.

Around December 11, it looks like the weather pattern will shift to one that brings frequent storms to the Northwest. This is a good pattern for Cascade snowfall. The winds will be from the west and the snow level will drop to 4,000 to 3,000 feet after each cold front goes through. And it looks like the pattern will persist for at least a week with at least three systems bringing respectable snowfall.

Without going too weather-geek on you all, I’m encouraged because I don’t’ see signs of a blocking pattern developing. This can be problematic because it brings a lot of north-to-south and south-to-north flow (and a lot of Arctic air back east and they get nice nor’easters like last week), which doesn’t usually do much for Oregon’s snowpack.

So that’s the latest. Keep your powder dry and your edges sharp.

Happy Trails,

Matt Zaffino