Wednesday was a showery day with some breaks of sunshine and also a few additional inches of snow. Them on Wednesday night the next wave of energy brought additional snow showers.

Snow totals below show the 24-hour snow from Wednesday morning to Thursday morning, and also the total this week:

• Abasin: 4”, 13”
• Loveland: 1”, 13”
• Winter Park: 3”, 12”

Aside from the resorts above, which are the only resorts open and so are the only resorts officially reporting snow, it appears that most other mountains have received 1-4 inches in the past 24 hours, including the 4 inches I see on the snow stake at Purgatory.

Now on Thursday morning, the newest wave of energy is spreading snow showers and areas of steady snow across most mountains. Here is the radar animation between about 6am-8am:

That’s a lot of action on the radar, and some of the showers are quite intense. I grabbed the screenshot below from a webcam in downtown Aspen. When you can see individual flakes on a webcam image, you know that the flakes are BIG!

Expect snow showers to continue through Thursday, Thursday night, and Friday. It will not snow steadily this entire time, but conditions should become deeper and softer as the snow continues to pile up with minimal sunshine (if the sun does come out, it’s a race to get the pow before the sun turns it to mush). Most mountains should see an additional 3-6 inches through Friday evening, and this number could turn into double digits if a few of the more intense cells hit certain areas repeatedly.

On Friday night and Saturday, a new storm will bring the heaviest snow to areas east of the divide. The skiable areas that will get the most snow are backcountry areas because Eldora and Echo mountains are closed. I think east of the divide is the call with 5-10 inches on Friday night and Saturday, with lighter snow perhaps making it up to Winter Park, Berthoud Pass, Loveland, and Abasin.

Also, temperatures will be cold enough on Friday night and Saturday that snow will likely fall in the lower elevations around the Denver metro area. Colorado usually tries to make it snow down low at the end of April and early May, and this year is no exception!

Here is the total snowfall forecast between Thursday morning and Saturday night. Remember, the location of the bullseyes will likely change, but at least this gives a decent overview.

If you’re looking for sunshine, Sunday should be your day. This will be a lull in between the storms.

Then a few more systems will swing through northern Colorado next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so there could be at least another 3-6 inches of snow during these days.

Finally, starting around May 4th, it looks like our stormy pattern will end and we’ll head back toward sunshine and warmer temperatures just in time for Cinco de Mayo.

Have fun in the pow and thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ