Colorado Daily Snow

Summary

Friday was a sunny, warm, and glorious spring skiing day. Saturday will start sunny and dry, then transition to mostly cloudy with a few showers. Sunday will also be mostly cloudy with a few showers. From Sunday afternoon to Tuesday morning, snow is possible near and east of the continental divide, though the precipitation will be showery so I have low confidence in snow totals. After that, there might be another weak and warm storm next weekend, and I see no sign of a cold and significant storm in the foreseeable future.

Short Term Forecast

It doesn’t get much better than the weather we had on Friday. Temperatures were warm, the sky was blue, and the wind was generally light.

Here’s what it looked like at Arapahoe Basin. Perfection.

So what do we do on a perfect spring skiing day? I did two things.

First, it was an opportunity to take my 20-month old son to the slopes. It turns out the kid likes to slide on snow:-)

Second, the perfect weather made me dream of past powder days. Below is my favorite photo from Steamboat Powdercats this season. This is the definition of blower powder. There is no need to hip-check a turn to get a faceshot. Just point ‘em downhill in the deep fluff and feel the magic.

Looking ahead, Saturday’s weather will start sunny and transition to mostly cloudy with a few showers by the afternoon. Sunday will also be partly-to-mostly cloudy with a few afternoon showers. Both days will be warm with highs in the 40s.

From Sunday night through Tuesday morning, a weak and warm storm will hang around Colorado. The best chance of substantial precipitation (mostly rain) will be east of the continental divide on the lower elevations. The mountains near the northern continental divide (Summit County area, Berthoud Pass, Mary Jane, Indian Peaks) have a decent chance for showers, and we’ll need a LOT of luck for the showers to amount to substantial snowfall. Keep your eye on the snow stake cams at Winter Park, Loveland, Arapahoe Basin, and Breckenridge to see if we happen to get some accumulation. I am setting my expectations very low, though any stronger shower can quickly drop a few inches of snow.

Extended Forecast

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday look dry and warm, then we could see another weak and warm storm next weekend (April 27-28).

A few weeks ago, it looked like the second half of April was trending toward colder-than-average weather, but this has not turned out to be the case and I do not see any cold or significant storms coming up in the next 10-15 days.

Unless this outlook changes, I will likely wind down for the season and write my final post early next week. Of course, I will keep an eye on the weather and write additional updates if I see something of interest, but it looks like it will be a time to transition to spring skiing and spring adventures.

Thanks for reading!

My next update will be on Sunday morning.

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, Arapahoe Basin, 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