Weather
The PNW is headed into a busy stretch, with colder early-week snow, a denser and windier midweek reload, and then a more uncertain weekend pattern. Washington resorts and Whistler have the cleanest setup, with the best combination of low snow levels and repeated snowfall from Sunday through Friday morning, while Oregon trends more marginal because snow levels rise higher and ridge-top wind is much stronger. For skiers, that means the lightest snow should come Monday and Tuesday, the biggest cumulative totals should keep building through Thursday night, and the chase becomes less clear once the next set of weekend bands starts to separate in timing.
Sunday through Tuesday turns colder and much more wintry across the Washington Cascades, while Oregon sees a lighter version of the pattern and Whistler waits for the bigger midweek push. Guidance is converging well on timing, intensity, snow levels, and wind impacts in this stretch. Snow levels fall quickly from roughly 1,500-2,500 feet Sunday night to near valley floors in Washington by Monday and Tuesday, so all Washington ski areas stay snow and snow quality improves markedly, with SLRs mostly 12-18 and some 14+ bursts for lighter turns. By early Wednesday, Stevens is on track for about 28″-39″, Mt Baker 20″-27″, and Snoqualmie and Crystal roughly 15″-21″. Whistler is more modest at first, closer to 7″-10″, before the stronger moisture reaches it. Timberline still picks up a useful 11″-16″, but Mt Bachelor remains the outlier with just 1″-2″. Sunday is breezy, then winds ease some in Washington while Oregon stays more exposed.
Tuesday night through Thursday night brings the main reload, and confidence is highest from Sunday morning March 8 through Friday morning March 13. Guidance is still converging on the existence of this push, but it spreads out more on exact timing, peak intensity, how fast snow levels rebound, and how much wind spills onto exposed lifts. The northern Washington Cascades and Whistler look best positioned, with another 24″-42″ at Stevens, 24″-40″ at Mt Baker, and 16″-27″ at Whistler by Friday morning. Snoqualmie and Crystal still do well with 19″-34″ and 19″-33″, but snow turns denser as SLRs settle closer to 5-12 and lower mountain snow levels spend time near 2,000-3,500 feet. Oregon is much trickier: Timberline has about 13″-22″ on the table, yet snow levels rising toward 3,500-6,000 feet and exposed gusts around 60-80 mph point to heavier snow and likely wind issues, while Bachelor stays fairly limited.
Friday through early next week still looks unsettled, but this is where the forecast becomes notably less specific. Guidance starts diverging on timing, intensity, snow levels, and whether the next meaningful wave arrives Friday or waits until later in the weekend. The realistic outcome is still periodic snow for Washington resorts, with another broad 6″-18″ possible this weekend into early next week and the highest upside still at Mt Baker, Stevens, and Whistler if the wetter solutions win out. Snoqualmie and Crystal look more like a smaller refresh, while Oregon is the shakier call at roughly 0″-10″ and with snow quality ranging from heavy to only fair. The broader signal beyond that keeps the PNW on the wetter side of normal, but also nudges temperatures milder, so there should keep being opportunities, just with much less confidence in exact ski windows after Friday.
Resort Forecast Totals (Sun Mar 08 – Fri Mar 13)
- Stevens Pass – 53″-81″
- Mt Baker – 43″-67″
- Snoqualmie Pass – 35″-55″
- Crystal Mountain – 34″-54″
- Timberline – 24″-38″
- Whistler – 23″-37″
- Mt Bachelor – 4″-6″
