Colorado Daily Snow

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

By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 4 years ago January 1, 2020

Slight changes, Thursday is still looking good

Summary

The storm will arrive on Wednesday. Expect a few inches during the day and the majority of the snow to fall on Wednesday night into Thursday morning. The Thursday morning snow reports should show 4-16 inches. Then we’ll see additional snow showers on Thursday and Thursday night and this will make Friday morning’s snow quality soft (but maybe not that deep). The next chance for snow will be on Sunday into Monday, then the week-ahead forecasts continue to show a continuous stormy period starting around January 9-10.

Short Term Forecast

Happy New Year!

Tuesday’s weather offered sunny skies and warmer afternoon temperatures that hit the high teens and low 20s.

On Wednesday, we will start 2020 with a snowpack that is above average for the entire state. Good news!

Also on Wednesday, accumulating snowfall will begin earlier than yesterday’s models showed. Expect mostly cloudy skies all day with waves of snow showers starting as early as sunrise. Most mountains could see a dusting to a few inches during the day with the most snow (2-5 inches) around Steamboat. This means that you should find soft/fresh snow during the last few hours of Wednesday afternoon.

Wednesday night is when the majority of the snow will fall. The latest models increase snow totals a bit with 4-12 additional inches. Since the majority of the snow will fall after Wednesday’s lifts close and before Thursday’s lifts open, it appears that Thursday morning will be the time to find the deepest untouched snow.

On Thursday we should see snow showers continue. Thursday morning may offer less snow. Then showers could intensify on Thursday afternoon and evening in the northern mountains thanks to an additional wave of energy and the added convective lift created by heating from the sun, which leads to the formation of small, intense cells (like summer thunderstorms).

Friday morning’s snow reports, which cover Thursday-day and Thursday night, should show an additional 2-8 inches and most of this snow will likely fall on Thursday afternoon early evening. Friday morning may not be as deep as Thursday morning but it might ski even softer on all aspects.

Below is Tuesday’s older version of the CAIC WRF 2km forecast:

Below is Wednesday’s newer version of the CAIC WRF 2km forecast:

The trend in this model has been to increase snow totals a bit, especially on Wednesday night. The model has otherwise been consistent in showing the deepest snow around Steamboat with totals around 15 inches.

I like when models agree, and that’s what we see from the University of Utah multi-model ensemble which also shows about 10-16 inches around Steamboat.

Wrapping this together, most mountains will see a storm total of 5-10 inches with Steamboat having the best chance to go above one foot. The deepest snow should be on Thursday morning with soft snow continuing through Friday morning.

Extended Forecast

I do not see any big changes

We will still expect a fast-moving storm around Sunday, January 5 to Monday, January 6, and also around Thursday, January 9.

Starting on or around January 9-10, all models continue to show a one-week (or longer) period of continuous storms and cold air for the western United States and Canada. It’s still too soon to know the details of each storm but what we know is that this should be very good news for all of us that love powder.

Thanks for reading!

My next update will be on Thursday morning.

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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