Wow.

Today was pretty sensational.

I went to bed on Tuesday night thinking we would see some snow showers today (Wednesday). Maybe an inch or two if we were lucky.

And then this happened:

Most of the mountains along and near I-70 likely received 10-15 inches of snow on Wednesday between 2am and 8pm. I say "likely" because not all areas are reporting (they aren't open) and not all have snow stake webcams. The big winners were: Eldora, Winter Park, Loveland, Abasin, Keystone, Breckenridge, Copper, Vail, and Beaver Creek.

Further to the northm Steamboat received 1-2 inches.

Further to the south, Aspen Mountain's top weather station showed 3-4 inches though I received reports of more. South of Aspen there were lighter accumulations, around an inch.

My previous post has a longer discussion about why we saw the surprise snowfall. In short, a cold front sat along the I-70 corridor and acted as a focusing mechanism for this storm. This combined with the jet stream overhead, cold temperatures, and enough moisture, and boom - lots of snow. Most of the big one-day totals along I-70 seem to be from the same setup with a stalled front focusing the snowfall. This happened on January 30th, 2014, and I remember another case from 2005-ish. I'm sure there were more in between.

Snow is still falling lightly over the I-70 corridor as I write this at 815pm, and there might be another fluffy inch or two (or three?) before things (probably) shut off around midnight.

Looking ahead, snow will pick back up on Thursday afternoon for most mountains, though I have a feeling that Thursday night's system will be a let down for the I-70 areas, at least compared to what we saw today. But the atmosphere is feeling good apparently, so maybe it'll do its thing.

Then on Friday night the San Juans will get a quick burst of heavy snow, dropping perhaps 5-8 inches.

After that, another intense band of snow should move from north to south across all mountains between Saturday afternoon and Sunday sunrise. This probably will mean another round of 4-8 inches of snow.

When we total up the snow from the previous Monday through this upcoming Saturday night, most areas will have recorded at least 10 inches and the I-70 mountains will likely come in around 24-30 inches. 

Average snowfall in November across the state is roughly 45 inches, so this week of heavy snow is great, but we'll still need another significant storm or two during the last 10 days of the month to get to average.

Today's storm was bad for my blood pressure but good for my heart (don't medically fact-check that statement). 

I hope we continue to be happily surprised throughout the season!

JOEL GRATZ

PS - to see today's previous posts, click the orange box below.