Colorado Daily Snow

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

By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 5 years ago October 23, 2018

Showers through Wednesday, then looking ahead to next week’s storms

Summary

Monday night brought showers to most mountains with a high snow level, and we’ll see another round of showers on Tuesday evening/night and again later on Wednesday. Thursday through Monday should be dry, then the weather pattern will change around Halloween with stormier and cooler weather.

Short Term Forecast

Before getting to the forecast, I want to show an aerial view of the northern Colorado mountains using photos sent in by a reader that was on a Commerical flight from Denver to San Francisco. These pictures were taken on Saturday, October 20th, hence the clear blue skies!

The photo tour will move from east to west, paralleling I-70, looking south.

First is Berthoud Pass, with Winter Park just out of the bottom right corner of the image.

Moving east just a bit, we can now see four of the mountains located in Summit County (Copper is also in Summit County but is just off to the right of the image).

Speaking of Copper, you can now see it on the upper-right of the image below.

As we shift further to the east, now in Eagle County, both Vail and Beaver Creek come into view.

And finally, we take another look at Beaver Creek, with the Collegiate Peaks stretching into the distance to the south.

Thanks again to reader Jason Ardell for sharing these photos!

Back to the weather…

On Monday evening the storm to our southwest pushed scattered showers across all mountains of Colorado. Temperatures were warm and the freezing level was high, around 11,000 feet, though the snow stake camera at Telluride did manage to grab about 4 inches of wet snow (we can tell that it’s wet snow as it sticks to all surfaces of the measuring board).

Now on Tuesday morning, the national radar animation shows showers exiting Colorado with another batch over northern Utah / southern Idaho and a different batch over Arizona and New Mexico.

It’s the second batch of showers, over Arizona and New Mexico, that will move in our direction and bring us additional chances for snow.

The best chance for more high-elevation snow showers will be on Tuesday evening/night and again on Wednesday evening. Temperatures will remain warm with a freezing level of around 11,000 feet. The most intense showers could drive the snow level down to about 10,000 feet. These elevations are around the middle or upper parts of most ski resorts.

Thursday should be dry and mostly sunny once the storm exits to our east.

Friday and Saturday will also be dry and mostly sunny for most of the time. For the northern mountains, we could see a few snow showers, low clouds shrouding the peaks, and gusty winds sometime on Friday, Friday night, and Saturday as a weak storm passes to our northeast. Also, temperatures might be a few degrees cooler on Friday morning compared to the warmer readings this week.

Extended Forecast

The weekend and next Monday should be dry and at least partly sunny. Maybe some mid and high-level clouds on these days.

Then it looks like the weather pattern will begin to change on Tuesday, October 30th. As the pattern changes, we’ll see our first chance for snow on October 30th, with chances through the rest of the week.

When I say ‘pattern change’, I mean that the odds for storms and cold temperatures will tilt in our favor. Most models now agree that we could see multiple storms between October 30th and the first half of November.

The 8-14 temperature outlook from NOAA shows a good chance for colder-than-average temperatures over Colorado. That’s a good thing and signals a shift toward potentially snowier weather.

In terms of the timing of any snowfall next week and into early November, there is little agreement across the models. The first chance of snow should be sometime between Tuesday, October 30th and Thursday, November 1st, but that’s still a wide window with lots of uncertainty. And after that, confidence in the timing of the snow plummets even further.

If we can get into a cool and stormy pattern in early November, that would be great timing as more of the snow will stick around (due to cooler temperatures from a lower sun angle) and could help as more resorts get closer to opening day.

I’ll keep you updated and thanks for reading! Next update on Wednesday, October 24.

JOEL GRATZ

Announcements

Cool things you might like!

* Get to see heli-skiing in virtual reality using an Oculus headset. I tried it last week and it was actually super cool to feel like you were in a helicopter and skiing with friends on big slopes, and it was the first time that doing something in virtual reality felt like a real value and not just a gimmick. Headsets will be available (as well as complimentary food & drink) at the CMH Heli-Ski event in Denver on Wednesday, October 24th. RSVP here.

* A contest where the winner (and 19 friends) get a mountain to themselves for a day. Enter here.

 

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

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

* October 30 in Nederland at Salto Coffee Works starting at 630pm. Beer and food available for purchase. Free to attend!

* 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.

* November 9 in Breckenridge/Frisco area. Details soon.

* 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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