Weather
Wind is the immediate story on Friday, but the bigger skiing headline is a major Saturday night through Monday storm that reloads much of the Midwest and especially the open northern Lower Michigan hills. Friday’s clipper keeps a fresh, wind-worked cover in play from Lutsen and Whitecap into Boyne Mountain, Nub’s Nob, and The Highlands at Harbor Springs, while Afton and Cascade stay mostly wet or slushy. After a quieter break on Saturday, a broader and colder storm spreads back in, and combined Friday-through-Monday totals currently range from 15"-22" around Granite Peak to 22"-34" at the open northern Lower Michigan hills. Tuesday then turns colder with lingering wind effect before a milder, generally drier stretch builds later next week.
Friday stays rough on the hill as the departing clipper combines modest snowfall with much more impactful wind. Guidance is tightly clustered on timing, with the snow winding down from west to east through Friday afternoon and evening, and it is also well aligned on snow levels briefly lifting toward the southern hilltops, which is why Afton and Cascade stay mostly rain or wet slush. Lutsen, Whitecap, and the open northern Lower Michigan hills should come out of this first round with 5"-7", while Granite Peak and Giants Ridge look closer to 3". Gusts mostly in the 40s and 50s mph, with local 60s mph around exposed Great Lakes terrain, will matter more than the snow itself for ski quality. The southern and lower-elevation edge runs denser, generally near 7-10:1, while farther north ratios are more often 10-14:1 for a fair to moderately fluffy refresh once the wind eases.
Confidence is highest from Friday, March 13 through late Monday, March 16, and the main event in that stretch is the long-duration storm from Saturday night through Monday night. Guidance converges on the overall structure: snow reaches Afton, Cascade, and Granite Peak Saturday evening, expands northeast overnight, and is in full swing around Whitecap and the open northern Lower Michigan hills by Sunday morning. The spread is in exact band placement, peak intensity, and how much of the strongest Sunday-Monday wind overlaps the heaviest snow, not in whether a major reload happens. Granite Peak sits in one of the tighter zones at 15"-22" for the full Friday-through-Monday stretch, Afton and Cascade sit near 11"-17", and the open northern Lower Michigan hills are favored for 22"-34". Guidance also keeps snow levels pinned near the surface for the core of this storm, so this is overwhelmingly snow, with ratios starting around 8-10:1 and improving into the 12-16:1 range as colder air wraps in Sunday night and Monday. That points to a dense base-builder first, then lighter chalkier snow, with the best turns most likely later Sunday into Monday wherever exposed lifts stay manageable.
Snow tapers and the colder backside takes over Monday night and Tuesday. That keeps a wind-affected surface in place for one more day, with Tuesday highs only in the teens and 20s at most hills and lingering gusts still strong enough in parts of Michigan to keep conditions feeling wintry. Guidance then diverges sharply on a weak Tuesday night into Wednesday clipper, so expectations there should stay modest, with only a nuisance coating if it clips a resort. Broader agreement shifts toward a milder, generally drier pattern for Thursday and Friday, strongest from Minnesota into southern Wisconsin where afternoon temperatures push into the 40s and 50s, while northern Michigan warms more slowly in the 30s and low 40s. In other words, next week trends away from active powder production and back toward spring snow management after the weekend reset.
Resort Forecast Totals (Fri Mar 13 – Tue Mar 17)
- The Highlands at Harbor Springs – 23"-34"
- Boyne Mountain – 23"-34"
- Nub’s Nob – 22"-33"
- Whitecap Mountain – 16"-24"
- Granite Peak – 15"-22"
- Afton Alps – 12"-17"
- Cascade Mountain – 11"-17"
- Mount Bohemia – 11"-16"
- Lutsen Mountains – 5"-7"
- Giants Ridge – 3"-4"
