Colorado Daily Snow

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By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 5 years ago October 14, 2018

Snow continues on Sunday for the eastern mountains

Summary

Snow began late Saturday night and it is still snowing now on Sunday morning with 3-7 inches accumulating at the mountains near and east of the divide. Snow should continue through the day then end on Sunday night. The next chance for snow will be a few inches on Wednesday and Thursday in the southern mountains.

Short Term Forecast

Saturday was a dry and sunny day across Colorado.

Saturday evening is when the snow began and it continued overnight into Sunday morning.

Below are snow totals as of about Sunday at 7 am. These are based on webcams and backcountry weather stations called SNOTEL. Because temperatures are cold (10-15F at about 10,500 feet), the snow is fluffy at about a 20-to-1 ratio (20 inches of snow to 1 inch of liquid). The average ratio in Colorado is about 15-to-1, and 20-to-1 is definitely on the fluffier side.

Boulder - 7”
Winter Park - 7”
Cameron Pass - 6”
Rocky Mountain National Park - 6”
Keystone - 4”
Arapahoe Basin - 3”
Loveland - 3”
Beaver Creek - 1”

I was happy to see a skier/rider getting after it this morning at Berthoud Pass.

If you’re heading out to hike around the backcountry, remember that the snowpack is very thin, so go to slopes that you know are smooth and grassy. Also, remember that if there is enough snow to ride, there is enough snow to slide, so always be mindful of avalanche risk.

For the rest of Sunday, expect snow to continue for areas where it’s already snowing, including near and east of the divide and just west of the divide around Winter Park and Summit County.

Here is the Sunday morning radar animation, showing the ongoing snow:

And the precipitation forecast for the rest of Sunday keeps the action around until evening. 

The scale is in inches of precipitation and not snow…multiply by 20 to estimate snow. I think these amounts are way overdone, so my snow estimate is for another 2-4 inches in favored areas for the rest of the day on Sunday.

And remember how we talked yesterday about Wolf Creek’s forecast, with a range of 0-12 inches from multiple versions of the American and Canadian models? Well, it looks like amounts will be closer to 0 inches as the heaviest snow should stay just south into New Mexico and east to the south end of the Sangre de Cristo range.

Extended Forecast

Monday will start very cold but at least the day will be mostly sunny.

The rest of the week and next weekend should also be mostly dry and mostly sunny with one exception. A stalled storm over the southwest will bring clouds and showers to the southern mountains on Wednesday and Thursday, which could amount to 2-5 inches at higher elevations.

Ski areas will be making snow as temperatures allow (mostly overnight) and in addition to Wolf Creek being open on weekends, I expect Loveland and/or Arapahoe Basin to open in the next week or two. This is just a guess based on their current snowmaking and the forecast temperatures (I have no inside information).

You can follow Al's Blog for daily updates on the snowmaking and operations at Arapahoe Basin: http://arapahoebasin.blogspot.com/

And follow this page to see recent pictures and get the latest from the snowmaking team at Loveland: https://skiloveland.com/snowmaking-operations/

Thanks for reading … next update on Monday, October 15.

JOEL GRATZ

Announcements

My upcoming presentations about the winter forecast and tips for chasing pow!

* October 18 in Colorado Springs at Ute & Yeti starting at 630pm. Beer & food available for purchase. Free to attend! Details here.

* October 25 in Golden at Powder7 ski shop starting at 630pm. Free to attend! Details here.

* November 1 in Boulder at Neptune Mountaineering starting at 600pm. Free to attend! There will be happy hour, my talk, the short film “Abandoned” about lost ski areas, and a raffle with REALLY good prizes. Details here.

* Early November in Summit County

* November 28 in Vail

* December 5 in Denver

 

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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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