Following the nearly continuous snow that fell during the past two weeks, the snowpack across Colorado is in amazing shape.

Monarch’s snowpack is at 178% of average and in near record territory (the dashed lines show the record low and high).

For the entire state of Colorado, the snowpack is about 150% of average and at the level that we would expect for late February.

Can we build on these numbers? You bet!

On Friday morning, light snow is falling on some of the southern, central and western mountains. This includes Crested Butte, Aspen, Sunlight, Powderhorn, Steamboat, and Silverton with snow reports in these areas generally in the 2-7 inch range from late Thursday through Friday morning.

The snow falling on Friday morning is from a storm that is cut-off from the main west-to-east flow of weather. The storm (blue colors) is currently well to the southwest of Colorado.

Cut-off storms usually move very slowly, and this one is no exception. By Monday it will have only moved about 1,000 miles to the east, with a calculated speed of about 10-15mph. This is roughly 2-3x slower than a typical storm.

This type of storm track favors the southern mountains due to winds and moisture streaming into Colorado from the south. Specifically, Wolf Creek, Purgatory, and Silverton should have the best chance for snow.

The University of Utah ensemble forecast shows a high chance that the southern mountains will receive 1-2 FEET of snow through early next week while the central and northern mountains will likely stay below 12 inches and more likely near or below 6 inches.

The best chance for significant powder during the next few days will be in the southern mountains on Saturday or perhaps Sunday.

On Sunday and Monday, the cut-off storm may push significant snow into the eastern mountains (Eldora, Monarch) and the greater Denver area, but I have low confidence in this. Stay tuned.

Once the cut-off storm moves away, Tuesday and Wednesday should be mostly or completely dry. as we will be in between storms.

Then the storm train will return with snow likely beginning on Thursday (January 19) and continuing through Tuesday (January 24). It will not snow continuously for all mountains during these five days, but the 5-day snow totals could be significant, especially for the central and southern mountains.

Have a great Friday and thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

In Thursday’s email newsletter, we mistakenly included the wrong promotion for Winter Park. Here is the correct promotion, ending today (Friday, January 13).

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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 – north side of the southern mountains | Purgatory, Wolf Creek – south side of the southern mountains