Colorado Daily Snow

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By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 4 years ago January 2, 2020

Soft on Thursday morning

Summary

Wednesday offered a surprise with snow starting earlier than expected and most mountains measured 2-4 inches before noon. Then an additional 2-6 inches fell on Wednesday night and this should make Thursday’s conditions soft for first chair. Expect snow showers with light accumulations on Thursday and Thursday night and then drier weather from Friday through the weekend. The next chances for snow will be on Monday (January 6) and Thursday (January 9).

Short Term Forecast

The good news is that we are waking up on Thursday morning to snow reports mostly in the range that we expected, between 5-9 inches. The surprise was the timing of the snow. While we were expecting just light amounts on Wednesday and then the snow to ramp up on Wednesday late afternoon and Wednesday night, what actually happened was that 2-4 inches accumulated on Wednesday morning and the rest fell on Wednesday night.

Because some of the snow fell on Wednesday morning, the untouched powder on Thursday morning won’t be as deep as we were expecting since about half of the amount on the 24-hour snow report will have been tracked up during the day on Wednesday.

No matter, Thursday morning’s turns should be soft and fun for most spots.

Below is a mix of actual and estimated snow reports. I estimate the snow report numbers for some spots because I am writing this before many resorts update their official report.

Wednesday + Wednesday Night = Thursday AM Report

5” + 5” = 10” Silverton
3” + 6” = 9” Breckenridge
4” + 5” = 9” Copper
4” + 5” = 9” Steamboat
4” + 5” = 9” Sunlight
4” + 4” = 8” Telluride
6” + 2” = 8” Winter Park
3” + 4” = 7” Aspen Mountain
3” + 4” = 7” Beaver Creek
3” + 4” = 7” Cooper
4” + 3” = 7” Monarch
4” + 3” = 7” Vail
3” + 3” = 6” Arapahoe Basin
2” + 4” = 6” Aspen Highlands
4” + 2” = 6” Crested Butte
4” + 2” = 6” Keystone
3” + 3” = 6” Loveland
2” + 4” = 6” Snowmass
2” + 3” = 5” Eldora
2” + 1” = 3” Powderhorn

On Thursday, expect mostly cloudy skies with additional snow showers and light accumulations.

On Thursday evening and Thursday night, we could see a little more snow with some models showing 1-3 inches for the northern mountains.

On Friday, clouds could stick around for some northern mountains while skies should go sunny for other mountains.

Over the weekend, it looks like we’ll be mostly dry and mostly sunny. There’s a chance for some clouds and light snow showers to linger over the northern mountains, though.

Extended Forecast

Our next chance for snow should be from Sunday night through Monday. This is a fast-moving storm and the limited amount of time that we’ll see snow should limit accumulations to 2-7 inches. Monday will likely offer low-end powder amounts during the morning and midday.

Then from January 8/9 through at least January 17, we will see a stormy pattern anchored over the Northwestern United States.

The 6-11 day forecast:

The 11-16 day forecast:

It’s still too soon to know if and how this stormy pattern will translate into snowfall here in Colorado. In general, I expect that we’d see a stormy every 1-3 days during this period and with some luck, accumulations could be consistent and significant.

Thanks for reading!

My next update will be on Friday 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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