Colorado Daily Snow

Heads up, there may be fresher snow! Read the latest Colorado Daily Snow

By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 6 years ago March 27, 2018

Active pattern for the Rockies

Summary

Monday night snow totals were the highest east of the divide with up to 10 inches and generally just a few inches elsewhere. The southern mountains should see light snow amounts on Tuesday, then snow will return to the northern mountains on Wednesday and Thursday with possible powder on Thursday. The next system should also favor the northern mountains from Saturday night through Monday.

Short Term Forecast

On Monday, most mountains were dry, though Steamboat saw some snow as a narrow band of precipitation set up over northwestern Colorado.

Then on Monday night, the storm dropped the most snow on the foothills near and east of the divide with some snow making it further west across the divide. As I mentioned yesterday, mountains that are located furthest east generally saw the most snow.

The totals below are a mix of official reports and what I saw on snow stake webcams.

Echo Lake - 10”
Winter Park - 4”
Breckenridge - 3”
Eldora - 3”
Arapahoe Basin - 2”
Keystone - 2”
Loveland - 2”
Steamboat - 2”
Cooper - 1"
Copper - 1”
Monarch - 1”
Steamboat - 1”
Vail - coating

On Tuesday morning, snow has ended for most mountains. Monarch should continue to see flakes through midday, and it’s likely that the southern mountains will see snow showers and a few inches of accumulation, though short-range models are not showing much agreement about the details of the snowfall in the southern mountains, and Wolf Creek is still dry, which surprises me.

On Tuesday night, most of Colorado will be dry as we will be in between storms.

Then from Wednesday morning through Thursday afternoon the next storm will bring waves of snowfall, focused on the northern mountains. Previously, it looked like this storm would drop most of its snow on Wednesday night, but now it looks like a slightly more unorganized system with light to moderate amounts of snow falling over a 36 hour period. I still think Thursday has the best chance for powder in the northern mountains, with average accumulations around 3-6 inches by the end of the day on Thursday.

The next storm from Saturday night through Monday should also primarily bring snow to the northern mountains, and like the Wednesday/Thursday system, the more recent models show this storm as being more unorganized with chances for lighter snow over a longer period rather than intense snow during a short period. It does look like Sunday or Monday could be low-end powder days with a few inches of fresh snow each day in the northern mountains.

The weather pattern from now through next Monday will favor snow along the spine of the Rockies, including here in Colorado.

Extended Forecast

I still think that much of next week will be dry, with the next chance for a storm sometime around late next week or next weekend (April 5-8, ish). I am a bit less confident in the timing of this next storm than I was yesterday.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

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Geography Key

Northern Mountains
Steamboat, Granby, Beaver Creek, Vail, Ski Cooper, Copper, Breckenridge, Keystone, Loveland, Abasin, Winter Park, Berthoud Pass, Eldora, Rocky Mountain National Park, Cameron Pass

Along the Divide
Loveland, Arapahoe Basin, Winter Park, Berthoud Pass

East of the Divide
Eldora, Echo, Rocky Mountain National Park, Cameron Pass

Central Mountains
Aspen, Sunlight, Monarch, Crested Butte, Irwin, Powderhorn

Southern Mountains
Telluride, Silverton – north side of the southern mountains | Purgatory, Wolf Creek – south side of the southern mountains

About Our Forecaster

Joel Gratz

Founding Meteorologist

Joel Gratz is the Founding Meteorologist of OpenSnow and has lived in Boulder, Colorado since 2003. Before moving to Colorado, he spent his childhood as a (not very fast) ski racer in eastern Pennsylvania.

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