I wrote my season wrap-up post on Wednesday, April 24. To see my favorite pictures and snowpack maps, click over to that post: https://opensnow.com/dailysnow/colorado/post/15303

Friday Night Recap

I expected showers and a few inches of accumulation on Friday night. What actually happened was more interesting, with 3-7 inches of snow across the central and northern mountains.

Breckenridge: 7”
Winter Park: 6”
Arapahoe Basin: 5”
Loveland: 5”
Aspen Highlands: 3”

This snow fell in a few waves of intense convective showers, which is the same mechanism that fuels summertime thunderstorms (warmer air rising). The convection was strong enough to create a few lightning strikes, one of which was captured on Steamboat’s summit snow stake cam. Thanks to our mobile app engineer Erik Smith, a Steamboat resident, for finding and saving this footage!

Saturday Recap

It was a quiet day with fresh snow in the morning and sunshine for most of the day with temperatures rising into the 40s.

Sunday & Sunday Night

The day will start dry, then showers will develop by midday. Most higher-resolution models now agree that we’ll see a line of intense snow from Sunday evening through Monday morning with 4-8+ inches of accumulation. The deeper totals should be roughly along the I-70 mountains.

Monday

The day will start with 4-8+ inches of powder in the morning for areas near the I-70 corridor. There might be a break in the snow during the morning, then snow should intensify starting around noon, and on-and-off intense snow should fall all afternoon. The last chair could offer 5+ inches of new powder.

Monday Night

The intense snow from Monday afternoon will continue on Monday night. This will be the time when we’ll see the most moisture from the storm, so snow totals could be impressive. Possibly 10+ inches from Monday afternoon through Monday night.

Tuesday

It should be a deep powder morning for most mountains. The 24-hour snow reports from Monday morning to Tuesday morning will likely be in the double digits. Some of this snow could be skied on Monday afternoon, but enough should fall on Monday night to make conditions deep and fresh on Tuesday morning. As a reminder, this is a warm storm, so the snow will be heavier and surfy, but of course, still fun.

We will probably see a lull in the snow on Tuesday. I am hopeful that the sun will NOT come out for most of the day, but with temperatures in the upper 20s to low 30s, any hint of sunshine will turn the powder into a thicker soup. Get out early to get the good stuff.

Tuesday Night

The second round of snow should start around on Tuesday afternoon or evening and continue on Tuesday night. It’s possible that this second round could be delayed and not start until after midnight on Tuesday. We’ll see. If forecasts hold, we could measure another 5-10+ inches by Wednesday morning.

Wednesday

This will be the third straight morning with fresh powder. We’ll likely see snow accumulation through midday. I like the chance for great conditions on Wednesday morning as we will have had new snow for the previous 48+ hours and the snow on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning will be the figurative icing on the cake. This snow will still be warmer and thicker, but the surfing will still be fun. And if temperatures do come in a few degrees cooler than forecast, the snow quality could be a little bit fluffier. By Wednesday afternoon, the intense snow should be over and we might see some sunshine.

Snow Totals

Accumulations from Sunday night through Wednesday night should be 10-20 inches with 30 inches not out of the question.

The previous University of Utah multi-model ensemble forecast showed 10-30 inches in the northern mountains at Loveland Pass.

The newest University of Utah multi-model ensemble forecast (below) is zeroing in on the 20-25 inch range. There is still a wide range from a few inches to 40 inches, though I like the consistency from run-to-run showing about 20+ inches.

This is NOT just going to be a storm for the northern mountains. All of our mountains should see snow. The best accumulations will be above 9,000 feet, though snowflakes could get down to 7,000 feet at times.

Using OpenSnow

To get an overview of the snow coming to all of Colorado, I love the Colorado page on the OpenSnow.com website and our iPhone and Android Apps.

From that page or screen (https://opensnow.com/state/co) you can compare the 10-day forecast, for each day and night, across all Colorado mountains, At the top of the page, you can choose to see the data in a summary form, graphical form (shown below), or a table view.

You can also tap on the “Map” button to view the 5-day forecast on a map.

I hope this is helpful!

Storm Recap

Amount of Snow:
10-30 inches for most high-elevation mountains around Colorado

Snow Quality:
Thicker and surfy. It’s still fun even if it’s not blower!

Timing:
* Monday morning powder in the northern mountains
* Tuesday morning powder everywhere
* Wednesday morning powder most places
* Yes, that’s three days in a row. A nice way to end April and head into May!

My next post will be on the morning of Monday, April 29th, and I’ll post each morning through the storm.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

PS – There will likely be another storm sometime between May 4-8. Let’s get through the first storm, then we can look ahead to what is coming up next.

OpenSnow
Even without “Daily” Daily Snow Posts, all hourly and 10-day forecasts for each mountain will continue to be updated every day, so of course, feel free to use our OpenSnow website and app for your spring skiing adventures.

OpenSummit
As we transition into hiking season, please check out OpenSummit.com, which is our summer app that has precipitation, lightning, temperature, and wind forecasts for the 1,000 highest and most notable mountains around the country. OpenSummit is only an iPhone app right now (late April 2019) and we are working to make it a website and an Android app by late spring or early summer.

One Subscription
In the next week, we will combine the login and All-Access subscription ($19/year) for OpenSnow and OpenSummit so that ONE login and ONE subscription provides All-Access to BOTH apps! 

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