To briefly recap the storm, snow fell from Saturday night through Monday morning, then there was a brief break for most mountains, and then a second part of the storm brought snow from Monday midday through Tuesday morning.

Unfortunately, the second part of the storm on Monday afternoon and Monday night did not produce as much as snow I had hoped – about 2-5 inches on Monday and Monday night, below or near the low end of the range I was forecasting.

Here are a few snow totals. Not every mountain is reporting, hence why some numbers are estimates or not up-to-date.

Wolf Creek - 21” (as of Monday afternoon)

Silverton - 21” (as of Monday afternoon)

Telluride - 16” (as of Monday morning)

Purgatory - 15”

Sunlight - 12-18”

Winter Park - 15”

Monarch - 14”

Steamboat  - 12”

Loveland - 11.5”

Crested Butte - 11”

Telluride shared this photo taken on Monday morning. At that time their storm total was 16” but I bet they are over 20 inches by Tuesday morning.

Winter Park has had the most snow of all the northern mountains. I can’t explain why, but with a 15 inch storm total and 7 inches falling from Monday midday through Tuesday morning, I guess it’s time to stop asking questions and just go ski.

Tuesday will bring the storm to an end. Light snow will likely continue to fall at times with perhaps an inch or two of accumulation (maybe a bit more in the northern mountains).

Tuesday night the skies will clear for most areas with clouds and flurries continuing for the northern mountains.

Wednesday should be mostly dry for most mountains.

Thursday and Friday is when the next storm will move close to Colorado. All mountains may receive a few inches of snow on Thursday and Thursday night, so there could be small amounts of powder on Friday. Then on Friday, the storm will dive to the south of Colorado, bringing a wind from the east for most mountains. This east wind is unfavorable for snow except for areas like Eldora, Monarch, and potentially Wolf Creek. Total snowfall on Thursday and Friday should be a few inches for most mountains, so not a big storm, but we’ll take any flakes we can get!

The 5-10 day forecast is a mess. The models are becoming more consistent with one another, but there is still not enough consistency for me to pick out potential powder days or which areas of the state would see the most snow from the upcoming storms.

Saturday and Sunday could bring light snow to the northern mountains due to a persistent flow from the northwest.

Next Monday through Wednesday (Dec 5-7) now looks like the time when we have the best chance of snow from the next storm.

Beyond Wednesday (Dec 7) there will be more chances for storms through the middle of December, but I have no clue about the track or timing of these storms.

As I mentioned yesterday, many mountains need about an 18-24 inch base to open a lot of terrain. This is a rough estimate, but let’s go with it.

Since fresh snow compacts about 2-3x when it settles (another rough estimate), that means most mountains need 36-72 inches of total snow to open much of their terrain. By December 1st, many mountains will have about 20-40 inches of total snowfall, so we’ll need another 15-30 inches for most mountains to open more of their terrain.

I hope that the storms next week and the week after can deliver the inches that we need to open significantly more terrain. As of today, Tuesday, November 29th, Wolf Creek has the most terrain open in the state (about 95%).

Thanks for reading and happy Tuesday!

JOEL GRATZ

Announcements

1) Contest – Prepare for the upcoming season with the Gear Up For Winter Sweepstakes presented by Liftopia! Prizes include new DPS skis, limited edition SPY goggles, Yakima cargo box, and $1,500 worth of gift cards from Liftopia, EVO, and The Feed. Enter to Win!

2) We are writing Daily Snow posts specific to Steamboat (http://opensnow.com/dailysnow/steamboat), Copper (http://opensnow.com/dailysnow/copper), Vail (http://opensnow.com/dailysnow/vail), and Breckenridge (http://opensnow.com/dailysnow/breckenridge).

 

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, Abasin, Winter Park, Berthoud Pass

East of the Divide
Eldora, Rocky Mountain National Park, Cameron Pass

Central Mountains
Aspen, Sunlight, Monarch, Crested Butte, Irwin, Powderhorn

Southern Mountains
Telluride, Silverton, Durango, Wolf Creek (Telluride and Silverton are on the northern side of the southern mountains)