Half the fun of snowmobiling is chasing the snow. If you rely on weather.com or accuweather.com, we have some much more reliable tools to help you spot incoming snow potential, how much fell and where you need to head for the best snow conditions.

 Best Snow Resource For Midwest

We have been a long-time supporter of John Dee and the weather information he brings you. All of his forecasts are free and well-detailed. He has a graphic that breaks down the next 4 days and long-range with potential future storms. If you want details, his forecast text highlights what is going on with the weather patterns in detail, chances of future storms, and any disagreement between the forecast models. Also, for this year, he started producing his daily snow forecast on YouTube for no charge. It’s a great combination of the graphic and text info with his witty humor!

 John Dee Forecast Graphic: https://johndee.com/forecast-graphic/

 John Dee Forecast Text: https://johndee.com/forecasts/forecast-text/

 John Dee Forecast Video: https://johndee.com/snow-church-video/

 Northeast Weather Resources

For a similar experience to John Dee but for the northeast, we recommend checking out Northeast Weather Alert. This site does require a subscription but is very reasonable. We recommend the contractor package at $35 a year, which provides detailed snow forecasts for plowing companies.

 His Facebook is updated with near-term maps if you don’t want to pay for the extended outlook.

 https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100044563598496

 https://www.northeastweatheralert.com/

 Post Snow-Storm Totals

Every storm is different and can drastically affect where and how much snow actually falls. The National Weather Service has a great map that will show you the details of storm totals, and storm reports can be back-dated as far as 48 hours.

To access the map click this link: https://preview.weather.gov/edd/

Make sure to turn on storm reports and select up to 48 hours depending on when the storm came through.

Long Range Forecast

For the eager beavers that want to be in the know before a storm is well known, the extended range models will give you a heads up before anything else. These tools below are vastly superior to the basic weather apps found on your phone.  

Meteorologists use two main models: GFS and ECMWF, also known as the European model. The GFS goes out to 15 days while the European is 10 days. These two models are the primary base that most forecasts are based on, and accuracy beyond 3 days is not the best. The extended-range model is suitable for seeing any potential storms in the future.

I like to keep tabs on the 10 days of accumulated snowfall from weather street for long-range snow accumulation. This forecast prediction is run on the GFS model and is the most straightforward long-range forecast.

 https://weatherstreet.com/models/gfs-acc-snow-forecast.php

 weather.us provides runs of the European and GFS model. They do not have an accumulated snowfall run, but they have snow depth and accumulated precipitation. If you see a jump in precipitation when selecting the time frame, you should cross-reference that with the temperature for the same time to make sure it will fall as snow.

The links are set to the maximum time out, but you can change the interval and forecast hour to see when the model predicts the snow event.

GFS 15 day Snow depth: https://weather.us/model-charts/standard/usa/snow-depth-in/20220203-1200z.html

GFS 15 days Accumulated Precipitation: https://weather.us/model-charts/standard/usa/acc-total-precipitation/20220203-1200z.html

European Model 10 Day Snow Depth: https://weather.us/model-charts/euro/usa/snow-depth-in/20220128-0000z.html

European Model 10 Day Accumulated Precipitation: https://weather.us/model-charts/euro/usa/acc-total-precipitation/20220128-0000z.html

 Have any other great weather resources you'd like to share with us?  Let us know at info@fasttractraction.com