Colorado Daily Snow
By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 2 years ago April 11, 2021
Possible powder Wednesday morning
Summary
Sunday and Monday will be dry. The upcoming long-duration storm will affect our weather starting on Monday night and will continue for about one week. The first round of snow should be Tuesday into Wednesday with potential powder on Wednesday morning over the northeastern mountains. Beyond that, the forecast is still uncertain with multiple rounds of snow possible.
Short Term Forecast
Saturday was a gorgeous day with sunny skies and temperatures that topped out between 35-45 degrees.
Sunday will bring more of the same with mostly sunny skies and high temperatures just on either side of 40 degrees for most mountains.
Monday will likely be the last fully dry day for a while. We'll see partly cloudy skies and temperatures once again rising to about 40 degrees.
From Monday night into Tuesday midday, the first round of snow showers will move across Colorado with scattered accumulations of a few inches.
Then from Tuesday midday through Wednesday morning, most models are in agreement that a more intense round of snow showers will focus on the northeastern mountains, with a decent probability for 5-10 inches of snow and powder on Wednesday morning. The best chances for the most snow look like they'll be at the higher elevations near and just to the east of the northern divide, around Cameron Pass, Rocky Mountain National Park, Eldora, Berthoud Pass, Winter Park, Loveland, and Arapahoe Basin. Places a little farther west, like Breckenridge, could be on the edge of the deeper snow.
Extended Forecast
From Wednesday afternoon, April 14 through early the following week, there will be more rounds of snowfall, though there is little agreement among the models about the timing and amount of the snow.
Some models show rounds of snow every 24 hours or so with significant additional accumulations especially over the northeastern mountains, similar to what we should see on Tuesday night.
Other models show more of the snow and rain staying to our north and over the eastern plains.
For now, I'm going to leave the forecast beyond Wednesday as 'very uncertain' and we'll likely be able to fill in the details over the coming days (just like we have gained more confidence around the snow on Tuesday night when that part of the storm is now within three days).
Stoke pictures!
I have a few more reader-submitted pictures to share over the coming two weeks.
Below, a fun powder day at Tucker Mountain at Copper from three seasons ago!
Thanks for reading!
JOEL GRATZ
Announcements
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