I'd think that forecasting that far into the future is iffy at best though. I really have no idea how rapidly the weather can change out there though. Here, 2 days ago, they were calling for really nasty weather today for our location. 50 miles away, they got hammered; we got next to nothing. Two hours ago, my wife looked at the overnight forecast. 10-18 inches of snow. 20 miles away, the forecast is for 3-5". Another location 10 miles NW of us is calling for 18-21 inches overnight. Every hour though, the forecast has changed. They're trying to nail it down, but they really can't forecast it quite as accurately as people think. Friday morning, they were really encouraging school districts to close for the day because it was expected to get so nasty outside. My district did close. 8:30, a few flakes. By noon or so, it was over. Roads were just fine. They weren't clear; winter driving conditions in effect, but they certainly weren't treacherous. However, an hour or so to our East, they got nailed with snow & driving was horrible.
Some of this, of course, is due to lake effect snow, but not all of these storms were supposed to be just lake effect. I don't know how... homogenous (for lack of better word) snow storms are out west. My personal plans would allow for some flexibility. I also don't know how good they are about clearing roads out there. A couple weeks ago, I drove cross-state. We were just a few hours behind a major storm (the storm that knocked power out in the NE). We were getting forecasts from ahead of us and expected the worst, but by the time we got into areas where the storm had gone through, the interstates were relatively clear. A little slushy in the passing lane, and venturing onto the shoulder meant you'd need a towtruck to get out of the snow bank you'd go sliding into. But speed limit speeds were the norm.
