Friday was a gorgeous day with lots of sunshine most of the day. Temperatures rose into the 40s on most mountains and into the 50s and even low 60s at base areas.

Saturday will be a near copy of Friday with warm temperatures and clear skies. The view off the side of Aspen Highlands (with the top of the bowl in the upper-left of the image) shows zero clouds on Saturday morning.

Sunday and Monday will be two more warm and mostly dry days. The only wrinkle will be on Sunday midday and afternoon when we will see more clouds and maybe a few light rain and/or snow showers. This will NOT ruin the day, it's just something to note since Sunday afternoon's weather will be a departure from the mostly sunny and dry days before and after this time.

From Tuesday to Wednesday a compact storm will move across northern Colorado. I have high confidence that all of Colorado will see 30-50mph wind gusts and cooler temperatures in the 30s and 40s on Tuesday and Wednesday. I have moderate confidence that the northern mountains will see snow during this time. If we do see snow, the best chance to enjoy any of the new snow will likely be on Wednesday.

Below are four of the major models and their snow forecasts for the Tuesday-to-Wednesday storm. The forecasts range from barely any snow to 3-8 inches, and all forecasts point to the best chance of snow being near and north of I-70.

At this point, I think most of us are optimizing for spring conditions, but keep an eye on next Wednesday as there could be some powder to enjoy over the northern mountains.

The longer-range models point to two possible times for additional storms.

The first time is late next week into the following weekend (April 8-11) and the second time is during the middle of the following week (April 13-14).

I have low confidence in the outcome during either of these time periods because there is little to no agreement across the longer-range models. I'll let you know if and when there is more confidence in the forecast.

Kids ski!

I asked parents to send me a few pictures of them skiing with their daughters since I had posted a lot of father-son pictures and wanted to mix it up. I now have many new pictures to post and I'll do so during the next few days and weeks.

Here is Charlie cruising through the falling flakes last month at Purgatory!

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

New Book!

There is a new book called "Hunting Powder: A Skier's Guide to Finding Colorado's Best Snow" and I think it's a great read for you if you are somewhat of a geek about snow and weather forecasting here in Colorado and looking to deepen your knowledge about meteorology and finding deep snow. This book is somewhere between a textbook and a 'what you need to know' guide to forecasting and I am mentioning it here because I reviewed the book and wrote the forward:-) Check out more details and please do consider buying a copy: http://opsw.co/HuntingPowder

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