Colorado Daily Snow

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By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 5 years ago January 20, 2019

Cold powder Tuesday morning

Summary

Following dry weather on Sunday, we’ll see snow from Monday midday through Tuesday morning. I still think 3-6 inches is a reasonable forecast and we could see up to 8 inches in spots. The best powder should be on Tuesday morning, and this snow will be cold and fluffy. For the rest of the week, snow showers will continue over the northern mountains and conditions could become sneaky good on Thursday and Friday thanks to consistent snowfall. An additional two storms could clip Colorado over the weekend and early next week.

Short Term Forecast

Saturday morning powder

Conditions on Saturday morning were superb in the northern mountains. The base was soft thanks to the snow on Wednesday, Thursday night, and Friday, and then Friday night’s fluffy few inches was the icing on the cake.

I love posting pictures of people skiing powder across Colorado, and on Saturday, a friend remarked that I hadn’t posted a picture of myself skiing powder for a while and he was concerned that I might now have enough powder in my life. Rest assured, all is well – here’s a shot from yesterday. It was fun out there!

Cold powder Tuesday morning

The next storm will arrive on Monday and snow should begin during the late morning or midday and continue through around Tuesday morning sunrise.

The positive factors: We’ll see strong storm energy (vorticity) and some instability on Monday afternoon and evening.

The negative factors: Moisture will rapidly decrease on Monday night as very cold air moves in from the north. The wind direction will also swing around to blow from the north late Monday night, which isn’t great for many areas.

I still like the general 3-6 inch forecast, and maybe we’ll see up to 8 inches if a few intense cells hit on Monday afternoon or if the good moisture lingers a little longer on Monday night. A north wind can also help places like Summit County and Winter Park (as well as Ouray in the southern mountains) so we’ll see if there can be some magic here.

The CAIC WRF 4km model has consistently shown about 3-6 inches, up to 8 inches, and this is in line with other models.

If you're driving home from the long weekend on Monday afternoon, realize that this storm could be perfectly timed to drop intense snow when around the time of maximum traffic in the late afternoon and evening, so maybe head home early Monday or stay where you are to ski on Tuesday morning!

The best snow should be first chair on Tuesday morning. Dress warmly as the temperature will not be far from 0F to start the day.

Extended Forecast

Tuesday afternoon and night should be dry, then snow will return to the northern mountains from Wednesday through Friday or Saturday.

It’s hard to pinpoint the timing of each wave of energy that will clip northern Colorado later this week, though for now, I’d say the softest snow could be Thursday and maybe again on Friday. None of these waves of energy look particularly strong but do not underestimate how good the skiing can be thanks to multiple days of consistent, light snowfall. And if there happens to be a stronger wave with more snow, then that’s a nice bonus.

The latest models have all shifted the storm track a bit further west toward Colorado from this weekend through early next week and into early February. This means that the northern mountains will likely have another few shots of at least light snow over the weekend and through next week, and then we could see a better chance for significant snow across all of Colorado starting during the first few days of February.

Thanks for reading!

My next update will be on Monday, January 21.

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

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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