Weather
A windy cold front Saturday and a lighter follow-up wave Sunday night into Monday will deliver the only meaningful fresh snow of this forecast, with overall totals of 5″-7″ at Big Sky and a broader 4″-5″ class refresh at Whitefish Mountain, Jackson Hole, and Bridger Bowl by late Monday. Conditions improve quickly after that as a strong warm ridge takes over, sending the Northern Rockies into a prolonged spring pattern with firmer mornings, faster afternoon softening, and only a low-confidence chance of a light northern reload near the very end of the outlook.
Saturday’s cold front is the main event, bringing rough lift weather, rapidly falling snow levels, and roughly 1″-3″ for the southern Idaho hills and 3″-4″ at the favored Montana and Wyoming resorts by early Sunday. Expect the harshest ski conditions during the day Saturday, when exposed terrain sees frequent 45 to 65 mph gusts, visibility drops in convective snow showers, and snow levels fall from roughly 5,000 to 7,000 feet to valley floors by Saturday night. Snow quality will vary sharply through the day: Bogus Basin, Tamarack, Brundage, and Sun Valley start with denser snow where SLRs are often in the 4 to 8 range before colder air improves things later, while Whitefish Mountain, Bridger Bowl, Big Sky, Jackson Hole, and Grand Targhee spend more of the storm in the 10 to 20 range. The guidance is tightly converged on the frontal timing, wind spike, and rapid cooling, with the biggest snowfall spread centered on Big Sky and the Tetons.
Sunday is a short reset, then Sunday night through Monday brings another 1″-3″ to Big Sky, Whitefish Mountain, Schweitzer, Bridger Bowl, Jackson Hole, and Grand Targhee, while southern Idaho trends toward little more than a coating. Sunday morning will be the coldest part of the forecast, with many Montana and Wyoming mountain readings in the single digits and teens, so the best skiing should come where Saturday’s wind did not hammer the surface. The follow-up wave is clearly weaker than Saturday’s front, and while the models still line up fairly well on Sunday night into Monday timing, they diverge more on intensity, snow levels, and how far south the snow reaches. Snow should start lighter and colder Sunday night with SLRs mostly in the 12 to 18 range in the colder northern and higher terrain, then turn more moderate to dense Monday as snow levels rebound toward roughly 2,000 to 6,500 feet and exposed ridges drift back into the 25 to 40 mph gust range.
From Tuesday through at least Sunday, the pattern flips hard toward spring, with strong agreement on a warm and mostly dry ridge over the Northern Rockies. Mid-mountain temperatures climb well into the 40s and 50s, with lower elevations in Idaho and Wyoming much warmer than that, so expect firm mornings, fast softening by late morning, and a steadily smaller window for winter snow quality each afternoon. It will not be calm everywhere, especially at Big Sky, Bridger Bowl, Schweitzer, and Whitefish Mountain, where many afternoons still look prone to 30 to 45 mph ridge gusts even without meaningful storms. Confidence is highest from Saturday morning through Monday afternoon for the snow timing and details, and it stays good on the warm, drier stretch from Tuesday through Sunday; after that, guidance splits on whether a weak reload brushes the northern half of the region around Monday, March 23, into Tuesday, March 24, so that late-period snow chance remains speculative and looks light at best right now.
Resort Forecast Totals (Sat Mar 14 – Mon Mar 16)
- Big Sky – 5″-7″
- Whitefish Mountain – 4″-5″
- Jackson Hole – 4″-5″
- Bridger Bowl – 4″-5″
- Schweitzer – 3″-4″
- Grand Targhee – 3″-4″
- Brundage – 2″-3″
- Tamarack – 2″
- Bogus Basin – 2″
- Sun Valley – 1″
