Colorado Daily Snow

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By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 6 years ago November 5, 2017

Saturday night brought 3-10 inches to the north, another round Monday and Tuesday

Summary

Snow showers hit the northern mountains on Saturday, then more intense snowfall fell over the northern mountains on Saturday night into Sunday morning. The weather on Sunday and Monday will offer scattered snowfall, and then another round of consistent and intense snow is likely from later Monday through early Wednesday, potentially bringing 5-10 inches to most mountains. After that, our next chance for light snow will be around Saturday, November 11th.

Short Term Forecast

The Sunday morning radar image shows a lot of action across the country. Here in Colorado, all of the precipitation is in the northern mountains.

The highest official snow report on Sunday morning is 5.5 inches at Loveland, with about 2-3 inches of that total falling on Saturday, and another 2-3 inches falling on Saturday night.

The other open mountain, Arapahoe Basin, is reporting 3 inches, and again, that was roughly split between Saturday and Saturday night.

The forecast for Saturday night was that the heaviest snow would stay north of I-70, and that's what happened. Due to warmer temperatures, the deepest accumulations were over about 10,000 feet. This map shows the precipitation accumulation on Saturday and Saturday night. Multiply by about 10 to estimate snowfall.

In this area north of I-70, on Saturday night, we saw a bit more than 4 inches at Steamboat.

And also on Saturday night, a bit more than 4 inches fell at Winter Park.

Based on backcountry weather stations called SNOTEL, other notable totals were:

Eldora - 4 inches

Rocky Mountain National Park - 7+ inches

Cameron Pass - 10+ inches

Flattops - 10+ inches

Sunday, Sunday night, Monday morning

The heavier snow in northern Colorado will come to an end by late Sunday morning, and then we should see scattered snow showers on Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, and through about midday Monday. There will be light additional snow accumulations near and above 10,000 feet.

Monday midday through Wednesday morning

This will be the time when the second round of heavier snow will hit Colorado. This time, I think most mountains will see decent accumulations, not just limited to the northern mountains. In fact, some of the most recent models show the deepest snow falling in the southern mountains.

A reasonable forecast from Monday through Wednesday morning for most mountains is about 4-8 inches. Some spots could get 10+ inches, especially in the southern mountains if we believe the newest models (there is some consistency between the newest models, so I have reasonable confidence in the heavier snow in the southern mountains).

Best chance to ski powder

If you're not skiing on Sunday morning, then your next best shot is on Tuesday throughout the day and Wednesday morning.

Extended Forecast

The weather pattern through mid-November should resemble the current weather pattern. This means that Colorado will be on the edge of the storm track. If we get lucky, we'll get a few more significant storms. If we get unlucky, we will not see a lot more precipitation.

Next storm on Saturday, November 11

Following dry weather on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, the next storm could bring light snowfall to the northern and central mountains on Saturday. Unfortunately, the heaviest precipitation during this time will stay to our west and northwest.

Weather pattern through mid-November

All models show that the northwest will stay stormy (blue colors) through the middle of the month.

Since Colorado will be on the edge of this stormy weather, it's unclear how much snow we'll receive heading into the middle of November.

I am somewhat optimistic that this storminess in the northwest will gradually work its way south over the next few weeks.

Also, I am encouraged to see consistent storms moving from west-to-east across North America rather than a large ridge of high pressure over the west as we've sometimes seen in recent years. Even though most of the storms so far have focused their heaviest snow to our north, it would only take a small change in the storm track for Colorado to get a lot more snow.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

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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, 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

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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