No big changes in the near term. Expect sunny weather through most of Saturday with high temperatures in the 20s to low 30s.

Then the first wave of snow should arrive on Saturday night and continue through Sunday, with another wave from later Monday into Wednesday.

Both of these waves of snow will come with wind directions from the south, southwest, and west, so it’s the southern mountains that will be favored the most with lower accumulations in the central and northern mountains.

Below is a multi-model snow forecast map. The exact numbers are likely wrong due to the model’s lower resolution, which does not effectively map our high mountains. But the look and feel of the forecast does appear to be correct with the most snow in the southern mountains and lower amounts further north.

The best powder should be in the southern mountains on Sunday and again on Tuesday with maybe 6-12 inches from each of these waves.

The central mountains might be half of what the southern mountains get, and the northern mountains will see light snow with the best chance for deeper accumulations around Wednesday when the winds might finally swing around to blow from the northwest.

We will likely see dry weather during the end of next week, then there is a hint for southern-mountain snow around the weekend of February 9-10. After that, all of the longer-range models show stormy weather around President’s Weekend, plus or minus a few days.

Thanks for reading!

My next update will be on Friday 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:-)

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