Thanks to snow that fells on Saturday night into Sunday morning, the northern mountains enjoyed powder on Sunday, and it was pretty fluffy!

The band of snow that brought Sunday’s powder dissipated for a while, then it re-formed on Sunday afternoon and continued through Sunday night, focusing mostly on the northern and central mountains. Below are the 24-hour reports from Sunday 500am through Monday 500am.

14” Winter Park
9”   Arapahoe Basin
9”   Loveland
8”   Beaver Creek
8”   Breckenridge
7”   Eldora
7”   Sunlight
6”   Copper
6”   Keystone
5”   Aspen Highlands
5”   Snowmass
5”   Vail
4”   Aspen Mountain
4”   Steamboat

Of the amounts above, roughly half of the snow fell on Sunday night after lifts closed, so there will be plenty of powder on Monday, though this differs from resort to resort, so check our 24-hour time-lapse snow stake cams to see when the snow actually accumulated and how much was tracked from Sunday.

To highlight one area’s snowfall, Winter Park takes the prize for the most overnight snow on Sunday night with 11 fluffy inches showing up on their snow stake. It’s going to be face shots there on Monday morning!

The total 36-hour snowfall from Saturday night through Monday morning favored the northern mountains, as expected. We went into this storm with moderate expectations, and also talked about how actual snowfall could out-perform the forecast (thanks to a combination of good moisture and the jet stream above) and watching the snow stakes closely and getting out there was a good idea even if the forecast wasn't super promising. Well, these totals are pretty darn good, especially on the heels of the 30+ inches that we received on Thursday and Friday.

17” Beaver Creek
16” Breckenridge
16” Loveland
16” Winter Park
14” Arapahoe Basin
12” Keystone
11” Copper
10” Steamboat
10” Vail
9”   Eldora
9”   Sunlight

Let’s look ahead, day-by-day. The forecast for the week is complex.

Monday should be drier across the state as Sunday night’s snow band probably will weaken and sag south into the central mountains.

Monday night should bring another shot of snow to the mountains near and east of the divide with 2-6+ fluffy inches. Also, the southern mountains might see snow – there will be intense snow over New Mexico and it’s unclear if some of this snow will make it far enough north to hit Colorado.

Tuesday should offer powder near and east of the divide in the morning with snow possibly continuing through the day in the southern mountains if the storm pushes far enough north. It’s a big “if” for the southern mountains and we just don’t know what will happen, even now just 24 hours before the possible snowfall.

Wednesday through Thursday should bring snow to the northern mountains. Forecast models only show light accumulations, though with adequate moisture, some storm energy (vorticity) moving overhead, and the jet stream in the vicinity, my senses are on alert that we might see more than just a few inches. Let’s see how the model forecasts evolve.

Friday should be dry.

So that’s this week. The snow will be soft, especially in the northern and central mountains. Thanks to chances for light snow continuing, we might see a streak of 8 continuous days with snow, and that type of consistency is something to celebrate and enjoy!

The outlook for Saturday through Wednesday looks promising with good odds for colder-than-average temperatures.

But what this chilly weather pattern means for snowfall is still very uncertain.

Looking at the upcoming holiday weekend, it’s possible that we could see a storm between Friday night and Saturday night. Model forecasts range from about 0-15 inches during this time for the northern and central mountains. Translation – who knows! The storm could track over Colorado with significant snow, or it may track north and we’ll see little or no snow.

Another system could bring snow sometime between Sunday and Tuesday (February 16-18). But again, model forecasts are all over the place, ranging between a lot of snow and nearly nothing.

Do your snow dances and let’s hope that the atmosphere remains in a giving mood through next week.

Thanks for reading!

My next update will be on Tuesday morning.

JOEL GRATZ

Geography Key

Northern Mountains
Steamboat, Granby, Beaver Creek, Vail, Ski Cooper, Copper, Breckenridge, Keystone, Loveland, Arapahoe Basin, 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