Skies are clear, northerly ridge top winds are blowing in the 15-20 mph range, and 10,000' temperatures are in the mid-teens. Today look for sunny skies, light to moderate NW winds, and high temps in the mid 20's. The next storm system will clip by to the north bringing a chance of snow to the mountains on Thursday. With dry conditions returning through at least early next week.

Winter finally arrived in the region last weekend, bringing a decent shot of snow to the mountains, and even an inch or two to the valleys. Lower North Creek picked up 6" of new snow and upper elevations received up to 12". Matt Cozart was up yesterday and reported pretty uneven snow distribution with areas of deep drifting alongside bare ground. He also reported signs of instability such as whumphing, and cracking in the snow surface. These signs indicate that underlying old, weak snow is collapsing under the weight of recent and wind drifted snow. Read his observation here.