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 November 30, 2016

Final storm totals + three more storms on the way

Summary

Our three-day storm from Sunday through Tuesday is now over and we’ll have a quiet day on Wednesday. The next storm will be weak and should bring only light snow on Thursday and Friday. A stronger and colder storm will then affect Colorado between Sunday and next Wednesday (Dec 7), with a third storm likely during the weekend of December 10th.

Short Term Forecast

Light snow produced another few inches of accumulation for a few northern and western mountains on Tuesday, and now on Wednesday morning the accumulating snow has finally turned off.

While snow reports in Utah stole the show with totals of 30-50 inches, three-day totals from Saturday night through Tuesday night in southern Colorado were also impressive!

Not all mountains officially reported snow each day, so the totals below are official for some and estimates for others. If you see different numbers, please let them in the comments.

Storm Totals

Southern Mountains

Cimarron Mountain Club - 32.5” (northeast of Telluride)

Wolf Creek - 28”

Telluride - 25”

Purgatory - 15”

Western (Grand Mesa)

Powderhorn - 24”

Central

Snowmass 18”

Crested Butte - 17”

Monarch - 16”

Sunlight - 12-18”

Northern

Steamboat - 16”

Winter Park - 16”

Loveland - 14”

Breckenridge - 13”

Last Saturday I talked about how some of the southern and western mountains could receive 24+ inches from this storm, and I’m happy to see that forecast verify! I don’t have the final word from Silverton, but my guess is that they received about 24 inches (or a bit more) from this storm. Silverton opens on December 29th.


Photo: Calvin Davenport

For the other mountains, we talked about general amounts between 10-20 inches, with the central mountains favored. That also worked out, and some of the northern mountains did pretty well. Also, most of the northern mountains that I didn’t list generally saw at least 8-10 inches, so few areas really got skunked from this storm.

Now on Wednesday morning the temperature at most mountains is between 0-10F above zero, with a few locations dipping below zero. Skies cleared for most areas on Tuesday night which has allowed the temperature to get very cold. The weather on Wednesday should be dry and sunny for most mountains with lingering clouds in the northern mountains.

Thursday and Friday will leave Colorado in between a stronger storm that will dive to our south and a weaker flow to our north. All mountains could see flakes on these two days but accumulations should be light, just a few inches at most. The best chance for 3+ inches will be around the mountains that can do well with a wind from the east, like Wolf Creek, Monarch, Eldora, and the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.

Extended Forecast

The extended forecast is still a bit of a mess, but I am happy to say that there is some consistency between the forecast models, so we can begin to narrow down when we might see our next powder day(s).

Saturday and most of Sunday should be dry for most of Colorado. The northern mountains around Steamboat and Cameron Pass could see clouds and light snow at times as they will be closest to an active storm track that will generally stay north of Colorado.

Our next significant storm will likely bring snow to most mountains from Sunday night through Wednesday (Dec 7). I don’t know exactly when the heaviest snow will fall or which mountains will get the most. What is becoming clear is that this system will bring very cold air to Colorado, especially on Tuesday into Wednesday when high temperatures could stay in the single digits with low temperatures well below zero.

After a break in the snow later next week, the next storm could bring snow during the weekend of December 10-11. Again, it’s too early for us to know where this storm will track, but with most models showing something lurking near Colorado during that weekend, I am cautiously optimistic that we will continue to add to our base through the middle of December.

While Wolf Creek is nearly 100% open, most other mountains need a few more base-building storms before they can open significant amounts of terrain. If both of next week’s storms bring significant snow, we could see significant terrain openings by the middle of December. It’s still a bit early to be confident in this, but the weather pattern for the next two weeks looks good and I’m hoping for the best.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

Announcements

1) I am giving a talk at the Topo Designs store at 9th and Pearl St in Boulder on Tuesday, December 6th. Come for beers and snacks at 6pm and I’ll give a 30-minute talk starting around 630pm.

2) 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!

3) 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).

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.

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