Where it is snowing

Since it's not snowing here in Colorado, let's look at somewhere that it is snowing.

And that is in western Canada. Our new Snow Depth map shows snow depths of 4-16" inches or greater, representing the total accumulation of multiple days of snowfall.

I highlighted Revelstoke because their mountain cams nicely show a lot of snow at the top of the mountain, and this new snow has buried Gnorm the Gnome (which serves as a proxy for a snow stake).

If you're a weather geek, zoom in to the snow depth map at Revelstoke and you'll see that the upper two-thirds of the mountain has snow and the base has no snow. Then look at the mountain cams which will verify that the snow level is above the base. A snow level above the base is typical in British Columbia early in the season, so that's not the story. The fun part is comparing the snow depth estimates with real-life cams and in this case verifying the accuracy of the snow depth estimate.

NEW: High-Resolution Maps

We added a LOT of map views to OpenSnow including multiple animating weather layers, base maps, and trail maps embedded in the interactive map.

Here is a quick guide to how to use these new features:
https://opensnow.com/news/post/new-high-resolution-maps

The maps are available now on our website and iPhone app and will be on Android by the end of the week (we're just working through the final bugs in the Android app release and then it'll be live).

Colorado cold front

Back here in Colorado, Wednesday morning is windy across the northern mountains with gusts over 80mph recorded at Berthoud Pass.

This wind is in advance of a cold front that will move across the northern mountains and eastern plains on Wednesday night.

Behind the cold front, temperatures will be colder than freezing in the northern mountains from Wednesday night through Friday afternoon.

More important than the temperature forecast (the red line) is the wet-bulb temperature forecast (light blue line) which shows readings in the teens and low 20s. This is a great temperature range for efficient snowmaking. Here is an explainer article about snowmaking and the wet-bulb temperature.

Warming up over the weekend

Temperatures will warm again on Friday and Saturday and snowmaking may be able to continue each night. We might see a little more cooling on Sunday into Monday, but this is less certain.

The main thing I'll be watching during next week is the chance for a colder storm toward the end of the week, roughly around Friday, October 23rd.

The European model is all-in on this colder system.

But the American GFS model is NOT all-in on this colder system and instead keeps the storm to our north, bringing just a glancing blow here to Colorado (much like the cold front this week which is just going to be a glancing blow with some cooler air and no snow).

While the European model is, on average, the most accurate weather forecast model when looking at a 5-day forecast across the globe, any model can be more accurate for any single storm in any single region of the world. For example, the storm we had on Sunday, October 11th was initially forecast to be much stronger by the European model, but it turned out that the weaker system forecast by the American GFS model was the much more accurate forecast.

So, there is a chance for some excitement late next week, but we're still 9-10 days away from the system with vastly different forecasts from various models, so there's no sense in getting too excited just yet.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

PS – Join me for a virtual talk on October 15th. I'll cover the forecast for the season and lots of other (fun) weather geekery. You'll also have the chance to win real-life prizes. This is all hosted by Neptune Mountaineering in Boulder. Stop by Neptune on Thursday before the show (1000am-630pm) to pick up raffle tickets, some OpenSnow swag (while supplies last), and look around the store. I'll be on-site handing out OpenSnow swag and saying hi (behind a mask!) between about 430pm-630pm. Details and tickets here!

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