Colorado Daily Snow

Summary

Expect dry and partly sunny weather through most of next week with just a chance for light showers around Tuesday, December 18. We’ll have a better chance for some snow around Saturday, December 22, then odds for snow will increase quite a bit right around Christmas and beyond.

Short Term Forecast

Thursday was beautiful

The clouds from Wednesday night’s storm departed early on Thursday morning and then the entire state enjoyed a bluebird day.

The weather pattern for the weekend

We’ll see high pressure near and over Colorado through Sunday. A bit of energy might bring more clouds on Saturday, but that’s about it for any weather action. Below is the forecast weather pattern on Sunday, December 16.

Chance for a bit of snow on Tuesday

A weak system will likely pass by to the south of Colorado around Tuesday, December 18. At best, all mountains could see a few snow showers with perhaps a few inches of accumulation in the southern mountains. At worst, we’ll just see some clouds with no snow.

Later next week should be dry

High pressure will return next Wednesday, Thursday, and maybe Friday. It’s possible that a bit of moisture will bring snow showers to the northern mountains later in the week, though odds for significant accumulations are low.

The total snow forecast from December 14-20 (today through Thursday) shows a chance for just very light accumulations in Colorado while the deep (DEEP!) totals will be over the northwest. The map below is the snow forecast from an average of 21 versions of the American GFS model.

Extended Forecast

The next reasonable chance for snow will be around Saturday, December 22nd. Both the European and the American GFS model show a system grazing the northern and eastern mountains around this time.

If you’re waiting for the better news, here it is. Starting around Christmas Day (+/- a day or two), both the European and American GFS models show that the storminess should return to the central Rockies around Colorado. I do not yet have any confidence about individual storms or which days could be snowier, but the blue color in the map below is what we want to see.

To sum up, we have great snow coverage right now, we’ll see dry weather for most of the next 7-10 days, and then odds for significant snow should increase right around Christmas and beyond.

Thanks for reading!

My next update will be on Saturday, December 15.

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