Weather
The AccuWeather Fall 2022 forecast goes into great detail on hurricanes, heat, and drought but also touches on where they expect to see significant early season snow (October and November). Here’s their forecast:
The Pacific Northwest will be the first to turn the corner and head into the wet season with storms starting to deliver rain and high-elevation mountain snow as early as October. The arrival of these storms will signal the end of the fire season for most of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.
The arrival of storms in October and November will not only be good news for crews battling wildfires but also for skiers anxious to hit the slopes across the Intermountain West.
“I believe that there is going to be kind of a mix as far as the ski season goes in the Rockies in the West this year.”
– forecaster Paul Pastelok
For resorts in the Pacific Northwest, the start of the ski season may be slightly later than normal as the first storm systems to track across the region may not unload a plethora of snow, but once there is enough snow to build a solid base at ski resorts, the skiing season should be strong well into the winter.
Farther south in the Sierra, it could be a slow start for resorts that rely on natural snow.
“I think they’ll get on the normal pace, not the early pace that they saw the last couple of years.”
– Paul Pastelok
Snow should arrive in the higher elevations of the Rockies by mid-autumn. However, it will not be smooth sailing after the season’s first flakes as warm weather could limit the accumulation at the base of the mountains until November.
