Featured Image: Keegan Rice // Skier: Tami Razinger
The first month of 2025 started off hot but quickly simmered to blue skies day after day the last few weeks. Everybody needs a good dose of Vitamin D throughout the winter but this extended high pressure, accompanied by arctic blasts and big wind events, has left every stash in every resort across the Western U.S. fast and firm. While avalanche conditions have benefited from the extra time to heal, wind loading and scouring has made the snowpack highly variable in terms of snow depth and quality. Thankfully, it looks like winter is making a meaningful return this week with impressive forecasts from OpenSnow for every state west of the Mississippi River, from British Columbia to Arizona.
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The backcountry will need time to adjust to the expected loading, but resort skiing will be back to its regularly scheduled program starting in the Southwest with Arizona, New Mexico and Southern Colorado favored for the biggest snow totals the first half of this week. A cut-off low, which is a persistent low-pressure system, is currently sitting over the Southwest, bringing multiple inches to Arizona Snowbowl per day through Thursday, January 29, as well as Taos in New Mexico and Silverton in Colorado. The Northwest and Northern Rockies are projected to join the powder party as the week progresses into the weekend.
British Columbia and Washington have been recently graced with upwards of two feet of new snow with seasonably appropriate cold temperatures. The invitation to the white room extends into Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming with consistent snowfall well into next week but weather models can’t agree on California’s chance of precipitation from this system. Generally speaking, it looks like this January dry spell is finally coming to an end. For the deepest predictions and your local forecast, head to OpenSnow.com and get those powder skis waxed and ready for winter’s long-awaited return.