Weather
Two short-range storm waves should keep the Alberta Rockies and Kicking Horse in the best position for fresh snow through Thursday, while the southern British Columbia interior trends much lighter and a colder late-weekend system remains speculative. The opening pulse favors Lake Louise and Banff Sunshine Friday into Saturday, Monday is a quieter reset, and a broader Tuesday through Thursday storm then spreads another round of moderate accumulations across most open hills. Snow quality improves with time as SLRs rise from mostly 8-14 in the first wave to roughly 10-18 in the midweek storm, while exposed terrain gets notably windy during the Tuesday through Thursday period, especially around Big White and RED Mountain.
The first wave is underway Friday and stays most productive through Saturday for the Alberta Rockies, with guidance tightly clustered on onset timing but looser on how far west the better snowfall bands reach. Lake Louise and Banff Sunshine look set for roughly 15 cm-20 cm by late Saturday, and Kicking Horse plus Revelstoke are in the 10 cm-15 cm class if the current consensus holds. Big White and RED Mountain sit on the dry side of this one with little to no meaningful accumulation. Snow-level guidance has the biggest spread in interior British Columbia, ranging from near valley floors to around 2,000 meters, so Sunshine and Lake Louise stay all snow while lower elevations around Revelstoke carry the highest brief mix risk early. Snow quality is mostly moderate to dense at first with SLRs near 8-12, then improves toward 12-15 as colder air filters in. Exposed ridges can see gusts of 40-60 km/h, but the stronger wind signal holds for the next system.
Confidence is highest from Tuesday, March 24 through Thursday, March 26, when every model brings a broader storm back into the region. Timing is well converged on snow redeveloping Tuesday and peaking from Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday morning, but the guidance diverges on how long the backside hangs on into Thursday, with the Alberta Rockies and Kicking Horse favored to keep snow going longest. That supports another 15 cm-35 cm for Lake Louise, roughly 15 cm-25 cm for Kicking Horse, and about 10 cm-20 cm for Banff Sunshine and Revelstoke, with lighter 5 cm-10 cm amounts farther south and west. Snow-level guidance is better clustered than in the opening wave, generally from valley floors to about 1,500 meters after the initial push, and SLRs improve into the 10-18 range for drier, more skiable snow. Wind guidance is also fairly well aligned on 60-90 km/h gusts for exposed terrain around Big White, RED Mountain, and the Alberta ridgelines, so intermittent lift impacts are a real possibility if the stronger side of the consensus verifies.
Monday should be the quietest ski day of the stretch before the midweek storm, and the next chance after Thursday does not deserve much detail yet. Most resorts turn mostly dry on Monday with temperatures generally in the -12 to 3 C range and only minor leftover snow showers, so it looks like the cleanest reset day of the period. Mount Norquay is currently closed, so the Alberta refresh matters mainly for Lake Louise and Banff Sunshine if you are chasing soft snow in that corridor. Beyond Friday the pattern stays cold enough for snow, but timing only loosely lines up on a late Sunday into Monday system and the spread on intensity, snow levels, and wind is wide. One aggressive GFS solution is inflating the western totals, while other guidance keeps the storm modest or misses parts of southern British Columbia altogether. The conservative call for now is another 5 cm-15 cm for many open resorts late Sunday into Monday, with the best odds for something more meaningful in the Alberta Rockies if the stronger version returns.
Resort Forecast Totals (Fri Mar 20 – Thu Mar 26)
- Lake Louise – 33 cm-52 cm
- Kicking Horse – 25 cm-41 cm
- Banff Sunshine – 26 cm-40 cm
- Revelstoke – 20 cm-33 cm
- Mount Norquay – 11 cm-19 cm
- Big White – 7 cm-12 cm
- RED Mountain – 4 cm-7 cm
