Colorado Daily Snow

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

By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 3 years ago January 11, 2021

Two storms this week

Summary

Monday through Wednesday will be dry. Then on Thursday, the first storm of the week should bring light-to-moderate snow to the northern mountains. Friday will provide a break of dry weather, then on Saturday, a potentially stronger storm should bring more snow to the northern and perhaps central mountains. Next week, January 18-22, should also provide multiple chances for snow.

Short Term Forecast

Sunday was mostly sunny and also a little chilly with high temperatures ranging from the upper teens to the mid-20s.

Monday will be another sunny day with comfortable afternoon temperatures rising into the 20s. The day will start chilly in the valleys, however, with readings colder than 0°F in some spots as I noted below.

To give an example of how the temperature can be colder at lower elevations (as colder, dense, heavier air flows downhill and settles), the temperature at mid-mountain at Copper is -2°F while the summit of Copper is 14°F. This type of temperature inversion is easy to measure if there are weather stations but difficult to model without a very high-resolution model.

Tuesday and Wednesday

These will also be dry days with comfortable temperatures rising into the 20s and 30s. While Tuesday should be mostly sunny, more clouds will move over on Wednesday in advance of the next storm.

Thursday

This will be our first chance for snow during the week. A storm will clip the northern mountains as it passes by to our north and east. If the storm moves close enough, we could see the energy from the jet stream give an extra lift to the air and create bands of intense snow. The best chance for snow will be from I-70 northward to Wyoming, and amounts could be anything from a dusting farther south to 3-6 inches or more closer to Wyoming and closer to the divide.

Friday

Back to dry weather for the entire state.

Saturday & Sunday

Another storm will track to our north and east, just like Thursday's system. However, it's likely that energy from this storm could track more directly over Colorado, and the northern and perhaps central mountains could see moderate snow totals (3-6 inches or more). The timing of this storm should mean that turns would be getting softer throughout the day on Saturday with maybe soft leftovers or even freshies on Sunday morning. Not all models show this storm bringing us healthy snow, but most do, so my confidence is reasonably high.

Two-storm totals

The University of Utah multi-model forecast for the far northern mountains shows the two storms on Thursday and Saturday with at least a few inches for the first storm and more than that for the second storm.

Extended Forecast

Our next chance for a storm will be around Monday, January 18, or Tuesday, January 19. The chance that we get this storm is really a toss-up. Some models have it, others do not, and since we're still seven days away, it is normal for model disagreement.

Then it looks like a stormier pattern will develop across the Rockies and the western US starting later next week and our two best chances for storms will be around Thursday, January 21, and again around Monday, January 25 to Tuesday, January 26.

We have been watching and waiting for this stormier pattern to develop later in January and it is fun to see the medium-range models now picking up on potential individual storms within this stormier pattern. The most important question is whether the individual storms will bring big snow to Colorado, and it is still too soon to know.

Perspective

I will continue to post reader-submitted pictures to keep us motivated to ride even during periods of drier weather. Here is today's photo.

This was the start of a three-day insane run in early January 2008. -George D.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

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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

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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