The Mount Washington Alpine Resort Tube Park on Jan. 16. Credit: Mount Washington Alpine Resort
Mount Washington may see up to 100 centimetres of snow later this week, according to the latest forecast from AccuWeather.
Randy Adkins, a meteorologist with AccuWeather, said snow is expected start accumulating late Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
“From that point through the weekend, we’re going to see snow showers just continuing throughout that entire time,” Adkins said.
“By the time we get to the end of the weekend, we could be looking at a fresh 50 to 100 centimetres of snow.”
However, throughout the day on Wednesday, no more than 10 centimetres of snow is expected.
“Interestingly enough, the most energetic system over the next several days will be coming on Wednesday and that actually will have enough warm air surging in with it such that you’ll actually have some rain and sleet along with snow for Mount Washington on Wednesday,” Adkins said.
There is a chance of wet snow from Saturday night into Sunday from northern Vancouver Island down to Nanaimo.
“I wouldn’t anticipate heavy accumulations in the lower terrain,” Adkins said.
“I think the really heavy accumulations are going to be limited to the mountainous areas.”
Adkins said once the storm system arrives on Wednesday, it’s expected to stay put until it pushes slowly inland Saturday and Sunday.
“We just got a continued strong stretch off the water and it’s pushing inland and up. It’s gliding up the mountains and able to ring out so much moisture. That’s why we’re going to see those heavy snowfall amounts over the mountainous terrain and also why at lower elevations, you aren’t going to see nearly as much precipitation,” Adkins said.
Adkins said snow will continue after Sunday but it won’t be as heavy and there will be very little accumulation.
Similar snowfall amounts can be seen a few times over the winter on Mount Washington, according to Adkins.
“When we get into British Columbia, particularly the higher terrain on Vancouver Island and getting down into the Cascades in Washington, those are areas where you can certainly see tremendous amounts of snow with these moisture-laden Pacific systems.”
Adkins also added that mountains on Hokkaido and other areas of Japan will also see storms that produce heavy snow during the winter.
Alexa Huffman
