Weather
Spring skiing stays mostly quiet through Saturday, then the weekend turns sharply more wintry on Sunday as rain changes to snow, winds ramp up, and colder air settles across the Northeast. Among resorts still operating, northern Vermont is best placed for the best refresh with around 4-7 in, the higher White Mountains look more like 3-6 in, and western Maine plus lower-elevation New Hampshire areas are more limited as the changeover comes later. After that, Monday and Tuesday feel cold and firmer, a light midweek refresher remains possible, and the late-period trend leans milder and less productive even though guidance still wobbles on next weekend.
Saturday looks like the last relatively mild spring day before the pattern flips. Clouds increase through the day, south to southwest winds strengthen, and steadier precipitation arrives Saturday night into Sunday. Guidance is closely aligned on the Sunday timing, the rapid snow-level crash, and a windy frontal passage, while intensity still has a moderate spread, with northern Vermont and the higher White Mountains most favored and western Maine, Quebec, and lower-elevation New Hampshire on the lighter edge. Snow levels fall from roughly 3,000-4,000 feet early Sunday to below 1,000 feet by evening, the snow starts dense with ratios near 5-10:1, then improves toward 10-14:1 late Sunday and Sunday night, and exposed terrain should see gusts around 35-55 mph.
Monday and Tuesday settle into a colder, drier stretch that should feel much more like late-season winter than spring. Confidence is best from Sunday morning through Monday evening, and guidance stays well clustered through that period on falling temperatures, leftover upslope snow showers, and breezy west to northwest flow. Daytime temperatures should stay mainly in the 20s and 30s at the ski areas, with many open resorts still seeing gusts around 20-35 mph on Monday before winds ease some Tuesday. That favors firmer snow surfaces away from the Sunday refresh, while the best leftover soft snow should hold in the northern Greens where the storm leaves the deepest coverage.
A weaker system tries to return some snow Tuesday night into Wednesday, but confidence is already lower because the guidance agrees on a light event while diverging on coverage, snow levels, and who gets the most out of it. The most realistic outcome is a minor refresher, generally around 1-3 in in the higher northern terrain with less elsewhere, and the snow looks fairly dense again with ratios mostly around 5-10:1. After Wednesday, the broader signal tilts milder and closer to dry or near-normal precipitation for the Northeast, so late week should trend back toward spring conditions with more freeze-thaw swings. There is still meaningful spread on next weekend, with some guidance trying to spin up another northern New England system and other solutions offering little more than scattered showers, so that part of the outlook remains speculative.
Resort Forecast Totals (Sun Apr 19 – Mon Apr 20)
- Stowe – 5-7 in
- Cannon Mountain – 4-6 in
- Jay Peak – 4-6 in
- Smugglers’ Notch – 4-6 in
- Sugarbush – 4-5 in
- Killington – 3-5 in
- Bretton Woods – 3-4 in
- Wildcat – 3-4 in
- Sugarloaf – 2-3 in
- Loon Mountain – 1-2 in
- Sunday River – 1 in
- Mont Sainte-Anne – 0 in
