A period of moderate-to-heavy snow fell on Thursday morning as the cold front moved through Colorado, and then snow showers continued on Thursday afternoon and Thursday night. The wind direction blew mostly from the west, which often favors Steamboat, Beaver Creek, Aspen/Sunlight, and Telluride. Did those mountains get the most snow? Somewhat, but there were a few surprises.

This map shows 24-hour snow totals from Thursday morning through Friday morning.

And here are the top reports:

• Steamboat - 10”
• Winter Park - 8.5”
• Telluride - 8”
• Silverton - 7”
• Eldora - 7”
• Crested Butte - 6”
• Beaver Creek - 5”
• Loveland - 5”

I think a heavier cell on Thursday morning was responsible for the higher totals at Winter Park and Eldora. And I was surprised to not see that much snow at Aspen and Sunlight, though Sunlight’s webcam did show 6 inches in the past 28 hours.

Now on Friday morning, snow showers continue to drift from west-to-east across Colorado.

I expect another 2-4 inches for most mountains, on average, during the day on Friday. Again, the mountains favored by winds from the west could see more, and any time a heavy cell hits a certain mountain, a quick 1-2 inches could accumulate and snow totals could be higher than expected. These snow showers should continue through Friday evening, so there should be soft turns on Saturday morning as well.

Then we’ll see a brief break in the snow on Saturday before a weak system slides through on Saturday night. That storm will likely throw down a coating to a few inches, so there could be a few fresh turns on Sunday as well.

Then, after another brief break on Sunday, we should see a more powerful storm bring snow from Sunday night through Wednesday morning. The heaviest snow will likely fall in the southern mountains on Monday into Tuesday with 10-15 inches of accumulation.

The central and northern mountains should receive at least 5-10 inches, mostly from Monday afternoon through Wednesday morning.

The second half of next week will be dry, then we might see a storm clip our northern mountains during the weekend of March 4-5. The storm track during the first 10 days of March will be close to Colorado but will mostly stay to our north.

There is a possibility that a storm or multiple storms will hit our northern mountains, but I don’t have much confidence that we’ll see big totals during this pattern. Of course, forecasts more than 7-10 days in advance are not super accurate, and the storm track could easily shift ~100 miles further south, which could bring heavier snow. Stay tuned!

JOEL GRATZ

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, Echo, 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