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 January 14, 2017

Tough weekend forecast

Summary

A slow-moving storm to the south of Colorado will bring periods of snow, heaviest in the southern and eastern mountains through Monday. Then the middle of next week will be dry before the next series of storms brings snow from Thursday night (January 19) through at least January 24th.

Short Term Forecast

The highest snow reports from Friday morning through Saturday morning show that most of the snow fell in the southern and western mountains:

  • Silverton - 10"
  • Purgatory - 5”
  • Telluride - 5”
  • Wolf Creek - 3-6”
  • Crested Butte - 3”
  • Steamboat - 3”
  • Powderhorn - 2”
  • Sunlight - 2”
  • Beaver Creek - 2”

This snowfall pattern is due to a storm that is spinning to the southwest of Colorado. Look for the spin just west of Baja and notice the flow of moisture from the south-to-north into Colorado.

This storm is cut off from the main west-to-east flow of weather, and so it will move very slowly and will affect our weather through Monday.

The slow-moving nature of the storm gives the models fits and I have low confidence in the exact snow forecast through Monday because there is so much disagreement in the models.

One model’s forecast (NAM 4km) shows waves of snow moving from south-to-north through the weekend, favoring the southern mountains like Wolf Creek, Purgatory, Silverton, and Monarch. Then a steadier period of snow could develop on Sunday night into Monday, mostly affecting Wolf Creek, Monarch, Eldora with perhaps lighter snow for other mountains. Colorado is in the middle-right of the image.

It is hard for me to say where and when the best powder days will occur with this storm. The highest chances for deeper snow will be this weekend in the southern mountains, and Monday for Wolf Creek, Monarch, Eldora.

The weather pattern from today through Wednesday shows the storm to our south (blue colors) and generally dry weather to our north and west (brown colors).

This means that once the cut-off storm moves away from Colorado on Monday, next Tuesday and Wednesday should be dry.

Extended Forecast

Then the weather pattern will change starting on Thursday, January 19th. From the 19th through at least the 23rd or 24th, a trough (area of storminess) should move into the western US.

We are 5-10 days away from this next period of storminess, so all I can say at this point is that most of Colorado will see snow from the 19th through 24th and perhaps through the 28th. However, I cannot say which mountains will get the most snow and which days will be deepest because there is still too much variability in the forecast. This is normal for the 5-10 day forecast, so stay tuned as we try to find more certainty in the coming days.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

Announcements

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

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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