Colorado Daily Snow

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By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 4 years ago March 31, 2019

Southern Snow on Sunday, Active Pattern Continues

Summary

On Sunday, look for 3-6+ inches in the southern mountains through the day. Monday and much of Tuesday will be dry, then the next storm should bring 3-6+ inches from late Tuesday through early Thursday. Following another short break, snow should return around April 7 and there could be flakes in the air every day through April 12th.

Short Term Forecast

On Saturday, we saw a few showers and persistent clouds over the northern and central mountains.

Now on Sunday morning, snow is ramping up in the southern mountains thanks to a piece of energy that broke off and lingered behind Friday’s storm.

The radar animation from western Colorado nicely shows the counter-clockwise spin of the storm, with its center of circulation near the Utah / Colorado border, south of Grand Junction.

A morning check of the mountain cams showed that snow was, in fact, falling, with 2 inches already on the snow stake at Purgatory in the southern mountains.

The High-Resolution-Rapid-Refresh (HRRR) model indicates that snow will continue in the southern mountains through Sunday at midnight, with snow amounts in the 3-6 inch range and maybe up to 10 inches by later Sunday night if things come together perfectly.

For snow conditions in the southern mountains, we’ll see them get softer through the day on Sunday with soft conditions on Monday morning as well.

Also, there could be a few showers over the continental divide of the northern and central mountains late on Sunday afternoon, and these showers could drop a dusting to 3 inches of snow.

Extended Forecast

From April 1 to about April 12, most models are forecasting multiple chances for snow. In fact, there could be flakes somewhere in Colorado on the majority of the days through mid-April.

The multi-model average snow forecast through April 12 shows plenty of action across the western US and western Canada.

Here’s how the next two weeks could break down.

* April 1 (Monday): A few showers over the northern mountains

* April 2 (Tuesday Night) – April 4 (Thursday morning). A few rounds of snow, accumulations may be in the 3-6 inch range, potentially softest on Wednesday-day or Thursday first chair.

* April 7 – April 8. Another storm, but too early for details.

* April 9 – April 10. I can’t rule out more snow during this time, with moisture streaming in from the west.

* April 10 – April 12. A stronger, colder storm is possible.

Below is the forecast weather pattern for April 11-12, showing the chance for a stronger storm heading into the Rockies.

The storms between now and April 10 all appear to be warm systems. Most of the terrain on most mountains will see snow and not rain, but again, it’ll be warm with temperatures close to the freezing mark. Then there’s a chance that the stronger storm sometime between April 10-12 could be colder.

I still don’t have much confidence in the details of any of these systems, so for now, what I can say is that active weather will continue through mid-April with multiple storms and many days of snow.

Thanks for reading!

My next update will be on Monday morning.

JOEL GRATZ

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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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