Weather
The Northeast stays in a useful late-March pattern through Saturday, with only a nuisance refresh tonight before a better Friday night into Saturday shot for northern Vermont, the Whites, western Maine, and Mont Sainte-Anne. Confidence is highest from Thursday evening through Saturday afternoon, when timing is clustered well enough to lean on combined totals of roughly 5"-10" at the best mountains and closer to 1"-5" at many southern or lower-elevation resorts. Sunday into Monday still looks active, but guidance spreads out much more on storm track, snow levels, and wind, so that part of the forecast needs broader expectations.
Thursday night is mostly a light elevation-dependent round, with many resorts seeing just a coating and the better terrain topping out around 1"-3". The guidance is converging well on limited moisture and short duration, so this first wave looks more like a surface freshener than a true reset, with the lowest bases mixing with rain at times while higher terrain stays snow. The better clipper arrives Friday afternoon, does most of its work Friday night into Saturday morning, and fades Saturday afternoon. Here the models are still fairly well aligned on timing and wind, but there is moderate spread on intensity, especially in northern Vermont where the snowiest camp runs notably above the pack. Expect the best returns from Jay Peak through Stowe and Smugglers’ Notch, with Wildcat, Sugarloaf, and Cannon also in the game. Snow levels should stay near the valley floors in the colder northern zones but can briefly lift into the 2,000 to 3,500 feet range around Loon and Killington, so quality should range from SLRs around 8 to 10 in the wetter southern snow to 11 to 13 in the colder northern terrain. Ridge gusts mostly stay in the 25 to 45 mph range, and Mt. Bohemia largely misses this first New England-focused round.
Sunday into Monday is the bigger storm signal, but it is also the period where the guidance diverges much more on timing, intensity, snow levels, and wind. The consensus still favors precipitation breaking out on Sunday, with a front-end burst of snow or mix, a milder push at some lower elevations, and colder backside snow showers lingering into Monday. After that, the spread grows quickly: the colder camp would put much of northern New England into a solid powder day, while the warmer or weaker camp trims many mountains back to only modest accumulations and more mixed precipitation below about 2,000 to 3,500 feet, with the highest snow levels most likely around Killington and Loon. The most realistic middle-ground outcome right now is around 6"-12" for the colder northern peaks and about 3"-7" for many lower or farther-south mountains, along with exposed-terrain gusts in the 40 to 65 mph range. Mt. Bohemia also has a Sunday-Monday snow chance, but spread there still runs from only a couple of inches to near a foot. Once that system exits, Tuesday into midweek should turn colder and quieter, which is a favorable look for snow preservation, and the broader late-week pattern still leans cool over the Northeast even though the next snow chance remains too fragmented to pin down with detail.
Resort Forecast Totals (Thu Mar 19 – Sat Mar 21)
- Jay Peak – 7"-9"
- Stowe – 6"-8"
- Smugglers’ Notch – 6"-8"
- Wildcat – 5"-6"
- Mont Sainte-Anne – 4"-5"
- Sugarloaf – 4"-5"
- Cannon Mountain – 3"-5"
- Sugarbush – 3"-4"
- Bretton Woods – 2"-3"
- Sunday River – 2"-3"
- Loon Mountain – 2"-3"
- Killington – 2"
- Mt. Bohemia – 0"
