Colorado Daily Snow
By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 5 years ago December 13, 2018
Thursday morning freshies, then a break
Summary
Nearly every mountain is reporting new snow on Thursday morning with most in the 3-6” range as we talked about and five mountains saw higher totals. After enjoying this new snow, we’ll likely see at least a one-week break from any significant storms and then maybe we’ll see the pattern become more favorable later in the month.
Short Term Forecast
Thursday morning powder
The storm moved through Colorado about as we expected on Wednesday afternoon and Wednesday evening, and the majority of mountains received 3-6 inches, which was in line with the forecast, though there were higher totals as well.
Thursday morning snow totals:
Steamboat: 11”
Silverton: 8-12”
Aspen Highlands: 8”
Telluride: 8”
Snowmass: 7”
Aspen Mountain: 5”
Breckenridge: 5”
Cooper: 4”
Powderhorn: 4"
Many more at 3" or below…
You can view/compare/sort the snow totals for Colorado on our website (
https://opensnow.com/state/CO#reports) and on our new mobile app for iPhone and iPad.
The deepest total was at Steamboat. At about 9pm on Wednesday night, their summit snow stake read 6 inches, which was in line with the forecast. Then they received some ‘bonus’ snow after that point when I expected little additional accumulation. Steamboat has measured new snow on 10 of the first 13 days of December.
The other deepest totals were at Aspen Highlands in the bowl with 8” (no snow stake camera there, but there is an automated weather station), at Silverton (which reported somewhere between 8-12”), and nearby at Telluride which does have a mid-mountain snow stake cam:
Enjoy the soft snow on Thursday morning!
Forecast through the weekend
It looks like we’ll see mostly dry weather through Sunday. There could be a light shower and more clouds on Saturday, though snowfall does not appear that it would be significant if it happens.
Extended Forecast
Around Tuesday, December 17th, a storm should pass well to the south of Colorado and maybe we’ll see a few showers and more clouds.
Later next week, from about December 20-22nd, there could be some snow over the northern and eastern mountains, though that’s far from a sure thing.
And after that, I do not see any consistency in the models or in other factors, and this gives me low confidence in the forecast heading into the end of December.
For the past few days, models were showering a good chance for storminess to return to Colorado around Christmas through the end of the month, but now that signal is not as strong.
Sometimes the forecast 10-15 days into the future can offer us a good signal for what’s to come (the storm on Wednesday night was consistently forecasted starting about 13 days ago).
But most times, the 10-15 day forecast offers just a few hints with little confidence, and that’s what we’re seeing now as we look out to the end of the month.
Thanks for reading!
My next update will be on Friday, December 14.
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