Weather
The PNW heads from a warm, mostly rainy Friday into a cooler and quieter weekend, then turns back toward a more useful snow setup in the middle of next week. Confidence is strongest from Tuesday morning March 24 through Thursday morning March 26, when falling snow levels should shift the advantage to Whistler and the Washington Cascades, with Mt Baker and Whistler favored for around 10″-18″ and lighter amounts farther south. Before that, expect mostly wet spring conditions Friday, only minor weekend refreshes in the far north, and very little help for Mt Bachelor. After Thursday, confidence drops off quickly: Washington and British Columbia may keep seeing occasional snow chances, but Oregon trends drier and one notably snowier late-period scenario looks too aggressive to lean on.
Friday stays warm and damp before the Cascades cool off quickly Friday night into Saturday. Guidance is tightly clustered on rain lingering through Friday, especially north, with snow levels too high for much help outside the highest terrain. As the front slips through Friday night, snow levels fall toward 2,000 to 4,000 feet by Saturday and showers fade, so most areas go from wet spring conditions to colder packed snow with just minor freshening. The only worthwhile weekend pickup looks limited to Whistler and Mt Baker, where a few inches of dense snow are possible and snow-to-liquid ratios mostly sit in the 7-10 range, while Oregon resorts and the central Washington Cascades stay nearly dry. Sunday and Monday then look quiet overall. Models are converging well on that cooler, drier stretch, with light winds for most resorts and the best surface quality coming from overnight refreeze rather than new snow.
The next meaningful cycle arrives Tuesday and carries the best ski impact from Tuesday morning March 24 through Thursday morning March 26. Model agreement is solid on a wetter Pacific front reaching the region in that window, but there is still a real timing spread of roughly half a day on the leading edge and a large intensity spread because one solution is much snowier than the rest. The shared signal is for snow levels to start high Tuesday, generally around 4,500 to 7,000 feet in the Washington and Oregon Cascades and closer to 3,000 to 4,500 feet around Whistler and Mt Baker, then crash to roughly 1,500 to 3,000 feet by Wednesday into early Thursday. That means the first part of the storm looks wet and dense where it is snowing, with SLRs mostly 6-10, before the back half turns more supportive of moderate to occasionally lighter snow in the 10-14 range and locally a bit higher in British Columbia. Ridgeline winds look breezy rather than extreme in Washington and British Columbia, while exposed Oregon terrain may see gusts in the 50-70 mph range. The northern resorts have the clearest shot at 10″-18″, while Stevens, Crystal, Snoqualmie, and Timberline fit more of a 3″-9″ storm and Mt Bachelor stays on the fringes.
After that front exits, Thursday trends drier and the late-period outlook becomes much less certain. Most guidance favors a break or only weak refreshers late Thursday into Saturday, which fits the broader signal for generally warmer than normal conditions across the West, though Washington stays closer to a northern storm track than Oregon. Model spread grows quickly after Friday: a few solutions try to bring another colder round of snow to parts of the region late Sunday into Monday, but most keep amounts light and uneven, especially south toward Timberline and Mt Bachelor. That leaves the best late-window potential near Mt Baker, Stevens, and Whistler, but it is too early to be precise on timing, snow levels, or totals there. For skiers, the practical takeaway is a spring-style weekend transition now, a better midweek reset for the northern resorts, then a lower-confidence pattern with periodic opportunities rather than a locked-in multi-storm cycle.
Resort Forecast Totals (Tue Mar 24 – Thu Mar 26)
- Mt Baker – 10″-18″
- Whistler – 10″-18″
- Stevens Pass – 5″-9″
- Snoqualmie Pass – 4″-8″
- Crystal Mountain – 4″-7″
- Timberline – 3″-5″
- Mt Bachelor – 0″-1″
