Summary

Following the high-elevation snow that occurred on Monday and Tuesday, we’ll see dry weather from Wednesday through Sunday. Then a large storm to our northwest should finally push east and bring snow and cooler air to Colorado between about Monday (October 17) and Wednesday (October 19).

Details

Showers fell for most of Tuesday and continued through about midnight on Tuesday night. These showers dropped another 1-4 inches of snow, mostly on the northern half of Colorado, and mostly above 10,000 feet.

Here is the how the mountains look on Wednesday morning.

I love this last image from Winter Park as it shows the low clouds stuck in the Fraser Valley. There is also a bank of low clouds east of the mountains, over the front range. All of these clouds should dissipate by mid morning.

Snowfall from Monday midday through Wednesday morning has fallen mostly over the northern and central mountains, with amounts in the 1-4 inch range for most areas.

The image below shows the increase in snow water equivalent at SNOTEL stations (backcountry weather stations). Since temperatures were rather warm during this week’s snowfall, the snow-to-liquid ratio was likely around 10 inches of snow to 1 inch of liquid. Since the highest value in the map below is 0.7-0.8 in the Never Summer Range, that likely translates to about 7-8 inches of snow. Image courtesy of Dr. Andrew Slater.

Update: I just found out that Dr. Andrew Slater passed away recently while at home in Boulder. This is super sad as Drew was relatively young and was a passionate skier and snow scientist. I first met him in a TGR forum about a decade ago and he was always so kind and patient, pointing me to new scientific studies and helped me to gather data. Here is a story about Drew's life, and at the end of the article, there is a link to a fundraising campaign that will support a memorial ski bench in his honor as well as a donation to Protect Our Winters. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailycamera/obituary.aspx?pid=181701841

Looking ahead, Colorado will see mostly dry weather on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I can’t rule out a shower here or there on any of these days as there will be moisture and jet stream energy close to Colorado, but for most mountains, most of the next five days will be dry.

Not all areas of North American will be dry during the next five days, however.

To our northwest, a series of strong storms will pound the west coast and northern rockies.

Some areas along the coast may see 10-20 inches of precipitation. To put that into perspective, total annual precipitation in Colorado is about 10 inches in the drier areas to about 45 inches in the wettest and snowiest mountains.

This series of storms will drop snow on the higher elevations of Tahoe, Oregon, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, British Columbia, and Alberta, Canada.

If there is a downside to this storm, it’s that temperatures will be warm, so snow levels will be relatively high, ranging from 5,000 feet in Canada to 8,000 in the northern United States. This means that many feet of snow will fall at the upper parts of the mountains, but rain will fall at mid-slope and below.

For example, our forecast for Whistler shows the snow level hovering between 5,000-6,000 feet during the storm, which is near to just above mid-mountain.

This storminess in the pacific northwest will FINALLY push east, toward Colorado, early next week. I am NOT confident about the details, but we should experience colder air and snow sometime between Monday, October 17th and Wednesday, October 19th.

After that, I think we’ll return to dry weather for 3-6 days, and then could see another stormy period starting around October 26th, plus or minus a few days.

And now, a few public service announcements…

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The 80's Ski Party is back - Friday, October 21st!

This is such a fun party! Your ticket includes FREE beer and FREE pizza (until it runs out) and balloon drop prizes. Grab your neon clothes and come dance the night away to your favorite 80's tunes! Event proceeds benefit First Descents, a nonprofit providing life-changing outdoor adventures for young adults impacted by cancer. More info & tickets here: http://opsw.co/2dTnx6f

Eldora added three new trails

Here is a video showing the construction and a map of the new trails: http://opsw.co/2dNkf1P

Did you know that you can get more from OpenSnow?

If you’re looking for a way to support OpenSnow and get 10-day forecasts, custom snow alerts, time-lapse webcams, and an email with the Colorado Daily Snow, consider signing up for the All-Access Pass.

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Thanks for reading and stay tuned for updates about the chance for snow next week!

JOEL GRATZ