Colorado Daily Snow

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

By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 5 years ago February 19, 2019

Southern deepness Tuesday, Thursday, Friday

Summary

We’re in an active pattern! The first storm of the week will wrap up on Tuesday with deep totals in the south and light-to-moderate snow elsewhere through Tuesday night. Then the second storm will bring intense snow to the south from Wednesday night to Friday night and other mountains have the best chance for moderate snow from later Friday through Saturday. Then we could see light snow over the northern mountains from Sunday through the middle or end of next week.

Short Term Forecast

Tuesday

We saw snow on Monday and Monday night with light amounts at most mountains and much deeper totals in the southern part of the southern mountains. Below are the reports covering Monday morning through Tuesday morning.

* Wolf Creek: 24"
* Purgatory: 10”
* Crested Butte: 3”
* Powderhorn: 3”
* Telluride: 2”
* Ski Cooper: 2”

For the rest of Tuesday, expect snow showers over the south to continue through the day, then as the storm moves over and east of Colorado on Tuesday afternoon we’ll see showers strengthen, especially near and east of the divide through Tuesday evening. Most mountains will see just light snow totals through Tuesday night (a couple of inches) with maybe 3-6 inches in the southern part of the southern mountains.

Wednesday

We’ll start dry then the next storm will approach and snow showers will begin during the midday or afternoon in the southern part of the southern mountains.

The second storm of the week, Wednesday night to Saturday morning

Like the first storm of the week from late Sunday to Tuesday, this second storm will bring the deepest totals to the southern part of the southern mountains from Wednesday night through Friday night. Then on the backside of the storm, on Friday night into Saturday morning, the setup will be more favorable for snow at other mountains.

The CAIC-WRF 2km high-resolution model forecast for snow on Wednesday night, favoring the far south.

On Thursday, snow will ramp up in the south.

And Thursday night is no different, favoring the south.

The University of Utah multi-model ensemble forecast is showing about 30 inches for the southern part of the southern mountains (around Purgatory and Wolf Creek) between Wednesday evening and Saturday morning. This is certainly possible with 48 hours of southerly winds and lots of moisture.

The deepest powder in the far south should be on Thursday, Friday, and maybe some on Saturday morning as well, with totals of 2-3 feet. For other mountains, we might see a few inches by Friday morning with Saturday morning looking the best with totals of 4-8 inches.

Extended Forecast

We should see drier weather later on Saturday.

Then the next storm should bring multiple days of light accumulations to the northern mountains from Sunday through Thursday, February 24-28. While no single day looks deep, multiple days of light snow can create very good conditions.

After that, we could see a break for a few days with snow returning sometime around March 4-5.

Thanks for reading!

My next update will be on Wednesday morning.

JOEL GRATZ

Announcements

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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