The full moon was two nights ago but the overnight illumination on snowy mountains is still impressive. This is a CDOT camera image from Loveland Pass looking southwest toward Arapahoe Basin at 515am on Sunday morning. Pretty cool!

Weatherwise on Sunday, look for clouds and showers to cross the state from west-to-east, mostly from late morning through the mid-to-late afternoon. It’ll be a warm day, so showers will fall as raindrops at many elevations with snowflakes at higher elevations. Accumulations should be light.

The weak and warm storm will stick around on Monday and Tuesday, and now all models are showing that Monday night will be our best chance for snow, especially near and just east of the continental divide. The showers still look scattered, but any of these showers could be intense and drop a quick few inches of snow in a short amount of time. I am watching Monday night into Tuesday morning for the best chance of respectable (2-8 inch) snow totals near and east of the divide.

The latest CAIC WRF 2km model forecast favors the area near and east of the divide, including a few inches at Mary Jane, Loveland, Arapahoe Basin, and Breckenridge. This is a similar forecast to other models. Again, I have low confidence in the exact snow accumulations.

Following the showers early in the week, Tuesday through Friday looks mostly dry for most areas.

Then we could see showers again next weekend and during the final few days of April as a system to our north brings a little bit more energy and moisture to Colorado. Right now, the system looks like it will stay to our north, which means that the significant cold air will also stay to our north and therefore snow accumulations should be scattered and light.

I do not see any cold and strong storms through the end of April and into early May. As I mentioned just above, a cold-ish system could stay just to our north in late April and early May, leaving us with just showers. If this storm jogs south a little further, maybe we could sneak out more snow.

Since it looks like the snowfall from this incredible winter is winding down, I will also be winding down my daily posts and will likely write my final post this Tuesday or Wednesday. After that, I’ll continue to keep an eye on the weather and will post an update if a stronger snow storm happens to head toward Colorado.

Thanks for reading!

My next update will be on Monday morning.

JOEL GRATZ

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