Colorado Daily Snow
By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 5 years ago January 28, 2019
Light snow Monday, then sunny
Summary
The cold front will work its way through the state on Monday morning and we’ll see a coating to 4 inches of snow by Monday midday. Then the rest of the week should be sunny and dry with snow returning on Saturday afternoon and a southern mountain powder day possible on Sunday, February 3.
Short Term Forecast
We are watching the cold front and associated snowfall work from north-to-south on Monday morning.
While most of the snow should be light, just a few inches in the northern and eastern mountains, the jet stream overhead is causing the storm to produce narrow bands of intense snow, so maybe a location goes above 4 inches if all things come together (as I type this at 500am on Monday morning, Winter Park is already at 2-3 inches). The best fresh snow will be on Monday morning.
Below is the snow forecast for Monday.
Following Monday’s storm, we’ll see dry weather through Saturday morning.
Extended Forecast
There is now pretty good agreement among all major models that we’ll see snow begin later on Saturday and continue through Sunday. Right now it appears that the southern mountains will be favored with a potential powder day on Sunday, February 3.
The University of Utah ensemble forecast, which shows multiple versions of the American GFS and Canadian models, is predicting over a foot of snow for Coal Bank Pass (between Purgatory and Silverton) on Saturday night into Sunday.
It’s likely that all mountains will see some snow from the weekend storm, and I’d hedge your plans toward the southern mountains if you’re seeking powder during the upcoming weekend.
After that, there is a pretty strong signal that cooler air and stormy weather will hang around western North American through at least February 12th.
This does NOT mean that Colorado will see snow every day through mid-February, though it’s a good bet that we’ll likely see multiple storms move close to or over Colorado and so there should be more powder days over the next two weeks. We’ll discuss details of each storm as they get into the 5-7 day window.
Thanks for reading!
My next update will be on Tuesday morning.
JOEL GRATZ
I will be on the road (skiing!) through February 8th and while I will try to post every day in the morning as usual, occasionally my posts might be a bit shorter or go live at somewhat different times. Thanks for understanding that I need to get my powder fix as well:-)
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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