Monday turned out about as we expected with a coating to 2 inches of snow in the southern mountains and a brief period of snow and little to no accumulation for most other mountains. Aside from this quick round of flakes, most of the day was dry, partly-to-mostly cloudy, and warm with high temperatures in the 30s and 40s.

Tuesday will be the final dry and warm day for at least a week. Expect high temperatures to once again push into the 30s and 40s and the sky will be a mix of potentially more clouds over the south and northeast and more sun over the middle of Colorado.

Tuesday Night to Friday will bring rounds of snow showers to most mountains. Accumulations could be anything from a dusting to 4-8+ inches.

The wind direction from the southwest could favor the southern mountains and will work against snowfall at many other mountains, but other components are in play aside from the wind direction and these could help to deliver flakes outside of the southern mountains.

The best chances for snow could be Tuesday night through Wednesday and again Thursday into Thursday night. Keep your expectations low but also keep an eye on the mountain cams in case the snow does crank up.

Below is the forecast precipitation map through Thursday.

Friday Night through Monday is when we could see a strong storm drop many feet of snow near and east of the divide with significant double-digit snow totals possible elsewhere.

The track of this storm is going to be in a classic position for a big March snowstorm here in Colorado – it will move slowly and strengthen just to our south and east, and it will pull in a lot of moisture.

Below is the multi-model precipitation forecast from Friday through Monday. The dark orange and red areas would equate to multiple feet of snow while blue and light orange areas would equate to 8-15+ inches.

The setup for the storm certainly favors areas near and east of the divide with multiple feet of snow, though don't discount areas west of the divide and near and south of I-70 since we can see on the map above that decent precipitation will fall there as well.

To compare the snow forecast for all mountains, I like the "10-Day Forecast" view for Colorado.

To find this, go to the "Search" screen on our website (located on the top bar) or on our app (located as a lower tab) and type "Colorado".

Then tap on on the "10-Day Forecast" selector at the top. You should see something like this:

If you want to sort the list of locations (which is a good idea since it's a pretty long list now that we have added backcountry and nordic areas), check the "Sort" box at the top and then select how you'd like to sort. In the example below, I selected "Next 10 Days" to see the mountains with the most snow in the next 10 days ordered from top-to-bottom.

If you want to see and sort a list of just your favorites mountains, first create a FREE account and then select your favorite mountains (this takes just a minute or so).

All of this functionality (the view, the sorting, the favorites) is available on BOTH our website and our iPhone and Android apps. I want to point this out because I think a lot of people still believe that the Colorado Daily Snow is OpenSnow when in fact we have a LOT more data and views to help you find the best snow.

The forecast data that I show in the above screenshots were current as of Tuesday, March 9 at 500am. If you look at these views at a different time, the numbers will almost certainly change because we constantly update the numbers with new model data. The snow forecast numbers are created using a mix of data from the European, American GFS, and Canadian GDPS models. This ensures that we are not cherry-picking just the highest (or lowest) models.

If you see high numbers like in the example screenshots above, that means there is at least some model consensus among three models that big snow totals are likely. If you see low numbers, that either means all models agree that there will be little snow, or perhaps some models are forecasting a lot of snow, others are forecasting much less, and the average is a low number.

I am talking about these comparison snow forecast screens because the data on these screens is useful when trying to figure out a complex storm like this one coming up over the weekend.

The bottom line for the storm over the weekend and into Monday is that there should be multiple feet of snow near and east of the divide with lower but still significant totals west of the divide. With so much snow as a possibility, figuring out where to ride should be based not just on forecast snow totals but on the logistics around travel and potential crowds as well. It's often fun to be in the epicenter of the storm with the deepest snow, and also, sometimes it is as much or more fun being a little bit away from the main action and at a place with a decent amount of powder and fewer people and fewer travel concerns. There is no right answer to the question "Where should I ride?" and for full transparency, I have no idea yet where I am going to chase for this storm. As the models start to agree on the details during the next day or two, I will post more specifics about snow totals at various mountains and regions across the state.

The weekend storm should move away from Colorado on Monday, but there could still be fun powder to enjoy on Monday in the wake of the storm.

Also, another storm should arrive later Monday and bring cold air and more snow to Colorado through Tuesday and maybe even into Wednesday. This system for early next week will likely NOT be as strong as the storm this weekend, but we'll take the additional flakes of course.

Beyond March 17th (the middle of next week), I have no idea what will happen, so we'll focus on the next seven days of snow and then figure out the longer-range forecast when we can.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

PS - See below for a new feature that we just released!

New Feature Alert!

We are excited to announce that Estimated 24-Hour Snow Reports are now available on OpenSnow for backcountry, heli-skiing, cat-skiing, and nordic locations around the world, along with ski resorts that do not provide official snow report information.

Each time we show an estimated snow report, we clearly mark it with a yellow "Estimated" badge so that there is no confusion between an official snow report and these estimated numbers.

These estimated snowfall numbers are only available on our website and will be rolled out to our iPhone and Android apps during the next 1-2 weeks. Read more about this new feature here.

Geography Key

Northern Mountains
Steamboat, Bluebird Backcountry, 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