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 February 17, 2019

Powder recap + two storms coming up!

Summary

Saturday was a fun day for many mountains with fluffy freshies on top of a soft base. Sunday will be somewhat of a break between systems, then expect more snow from Sunday night through Wednesday morning and another storm around Friday, February 22.

Short Term Forecast

Saturday Recap

Saturday’s cold front moved through in the morning with a burst of snow along the front (2-5 inches) and then additional snow showers through the afternoon. The cold air led to fluffy snow, which blew in to many areas and skied deeper than the measurements below would indicate.

Northern Mountains
* Beaver Creek: 7”
* Vail: 6”
* Steamboat: 5” mid, 13” summit
* Winter Park: 5”
* Breckenridge: 4”
* Copper: 4”
* Loveland: 4”

Central Mountains
* Ski Cooper: 8”
* Snowmass: 8”
* Crested Butte: 7”
* Monarch: 6”
* Powderhorn: 6”
* Aspen Highlands: 5”

Southern Mountains
* Silverton: 4”
* Telluride: 4”

To figure out where the deepest snow will fall after a front, the wind direction from the northwest has a great influence. Sometimes, more importantly, is where the cells of more intense snow happen to track. In the case of Saturday, the east side of Beaver Creek over to Ski Cooper caught one line of cells, while another favored the area on the west side of the Aspen and south-southeast toward Crested Butte. Any of these post-frontal cells can dump 2 inches per hour, so if you get one or two of these cells, all of a sudden your snow totals can be double that of what fell along the front.

Here is a reader-submitted photo from Beaver Creek showing the “fluff” factor.

Sunday (today)

We are starting with cold on-mountain temperatures around 0F. A weak wave of energy is bringing light snow showers to the northern mountains though accumulations have stayed to just a coating of new fluff. Most of the day should be on the drier side with some afternoon snow showers developing as the next storm moves toward Colorado.

Storm Sunday Night to Tuesday Night

This storm will track to the south of Colorado and should favor the southern part of the southern mountains and also areas near and east of the divide. It’ll be a cold system, which limits moisture, and also, the cold temperatures mean fluffy snow, so amounts can be deep even with limited moisture. It looks like the deepest snow in the south (10-20+ inches) and the east will be later Monday through Tuesday, then all mountains could see snow late Tuesday into Wednesday morning as the storm moves over and east of Colorado. I have pretty high confidence in snow amounts in the south with lower confidence in snow amounts elsewhere.

Snow on Sunday night favors the south and east.

Snow on Monday favors the south.

Snow on Monday night favors the south and east.

Snow fills in on Tuesday across many mountains as the winds swing around to blow from the west.

Same deal with Tuesday night, lingering snow showers with a west or northwest flow.

The deepest powder will likely be on Tuesday in the south and maybe by Wednesday morning, other mountains will see soft snow thanks to a few days of cumulative snow showers.

Extended Forecast

Wednesday and Thursday should be dry, then the next storm will likely bring snow from later Thursday through early Saturday. Once again, this will be a southern-focused storm, and I’m concerned that the storm could track even further south than the models currently indicate which would reduce snow totals. Stay tuned.

After that, I still think we’ll see additional precipitation around February 25-27 but I continue to have low or no confidence about the details of this system.

Thanks for reading!

My next update will be on Monday morning.

JOEL GRATZ

Announcements

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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