Colorado Daily Snow

Heads up, there may be fresher snow! Read the latest Colorado Daily Snow

By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 6 years ago November 19, 2017

Some snow Tuesday, then warm until a change on November 29th

Summary

Snowmaking continues with cool temperatures this weekend. Then we'll see a chance for light snow over the northern mountains on Monday night through Tuesday. After that, expect about seven days of warm weather. A change toward cooler and stormier weather should occur around November 29th.

Short Term Forecast

Saturday was a beautiful winter day with fresh snow on the ground and high temperatures in the 20s. This allowed snowmaking to occur all day. I went to Berthoud Pass and found about 10 inches of fresh snow, but there was little to no base under the powder. We need more snow!

Now on Sunday morning, temperatures are in the teens (good for snowmaking) and the Arapahoe Basin summit webcam captured a beautiful sunrise looking toward the northeast.

The weather on Sunday and Monday will be dry. Temperatures will likely be cold enough for snowmaking during the nights but a bit too warm for widespread snowmaking during the days.

Then on Monday night and Tuesday, we'll see a weak storm deal a glancing blow to the northern mountains. From I-70 north to Wyoming, expect anywhere from a coating to six inches.

That's a wide range, I know. I was surprised to see the spread in the models with the storm only being 48 hours away. This spread is likely because the storm will move nearly parallel to the northern mountains, so if the storm moves just a few miles south there will be more snow, and if it moves just a bit north there will be little snow. Expect the low end of the range and be happily surprised if a few more inches fall.

Extended Forecast

The weather looks dry during the rest of this week. Here is the weather pattern forecast for Thanksgiving. Red indicates drier and warmer weather.

Temperatures during the end of this week, through next weekend, and into early next week will be warm. Likely cold enough at night for some snowmaking, but not the cold weather we need for a lot of snowmaking.

The average of 51 versions of the European model show that the warm weather will be replaced with stormier and cooler weather starting on Wednesday, November 29th.

Incredibly, both the American GFS model and the Canadian model show about the same thing, with cooler and stormier weather starting on Wednesday, November 29th. Here is the average of 21 versions of the American GFS model.

When the 10-day forecast shows this much agreement among multiple models, we should have higher confidence. Not high confidence, since 10-day forecasts are not very accurate, but at least higher confidence. It would be perfect timing for the snow to consistently fall starting right around the end of November and into early December.

I'll keep you updated and 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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