Colorado Daily Snow

Heads up, there may be fresher snow! Read the latest Colorado Daily Snow

By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 7 years ago September 23, 2016

Snow!

Summary

Colder air will push into Colorado through the day on Friday with snow falling above 10,000 feet. Saturday will be cool with some clouds and showers over the northern half of the state, then Sunday through most of next week will become warmer and drier.

Details

The storm has arrived!

To the west of Colorado, a few inches of snow has already fallen at the higher elevations of Utah, and at least a few more inches should accumulate through the day on Friday.


Here in Colorado, we are already seeing snow above about 10,000 feet at the top of the Grand Mesa, just south of Powderhorn Ski Area near Grand Junction.

The snowfall on the Grand Mesa is part of a line of showers, storms, and high-elevation snow flakes that will move from west-to-east across Colorado. The satellite image shows the band of clouds over western Colorado.

Unfortunately, the radar that covers western Colorado is temporarily out of service, so the only way we can track this line of showers is through satellite (looking at the clouds from above) and with webcams and ground-based weather stations.

This band of showers should weaken somewhat as it crosses the state, though most mountains above about 10,000 feet should get at least a fresh coating of snow, and perhaps 3-6 inches if stronger cells repeatedly track over one area.

Saturday will be a cool day for the entire state. Mountain town temperatures should be in the 50s with elevations over 10,000 feet staying in the 20s and 30s. The northern and central mountains will see a mix of sun, clouds, and snow showers, while most southern mountains stay dry.

Sunday's high temperature should be 5-10 degrees warmer than Saturday, and it’ll also be at least partly sunny for most of the state with few if any showers.

Dress warm this weekend and enjoy the views of golden aspen leaves with snow capped peaks!

Next week should bring warmer weather. Monday and Tuesday should stay dry, then a few showers could creep into the forecast by Wednesday and Thursday.

Our next chance for a significant storm and cool air likely will not be until about October 5-10th.

And now, it’s announcement time!

New Hiking Weather App!

Last week, we launched “OpenSummit”, a new iPhone app that provides hourly forecasts for each 14,000 foot peak in Colorado, including the chance of lightning, precipitation, summit temperature, and summit wind speed. Download the app here: http://opsw.co/OpenSummitapp

Heli Ski Event in Denver on October 6 - Movie, Beer, and Food

Join me in Denver on Thursday, October 6th to learn more about heli-skiing with Canadian Mountain Holidays (CMH). I'll talk about my previous trips with CMH, they will show a premiere of their new short film, and free beer and food will be served! This is always a fun event, so if you're interested in taking a heli-ski trip this season or sometime soon, I hope you can make it! Please RSVP here: http://opsw.co/CMHDenverOct62016

Did you know that you can get more from OpenSnow?

If you’re looking for a way to support OpenSnow and get useful additional insight this winter, consider signing up for the All-Access Pass.

This pass gives you access to:

  • 10-day forecasts
  • Custom alerts to know about upcoming powder days
  • Time-lapse webcams for tracking exactly when fresh snow has fallen
  • Email delivery of the Colorado Daily Snow as soon as it’s published


All of this costs just $19 for one full year (365 days) and helps to support OpenSnow so that we can spend money and time to further improve our website and mobile apps.

I’d love to count you as an All-Access member!


Thanks for reading and have an amazing autumn weekend here in Colorado!

JOEL GRATZ

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.

Free OpenSnow App