Wednesday was a mostly dry and sunny day, and on Wednesday night there were just light snow accumulations over the northeastern mountains.

So far, this week's storm has felt somewhat underwhelming. That is because most of the storm energy has remained well to our west, leaving us with weaker energy and more scattered and light snow accumulations. This will change on Thursday night and Friday.

First, the weather on Thursday will start out dry with some sunshine.

On Thursday afternoon, showers will begin and intensify, especially over the central and northern mountains. Any shower could drop a few inches of snow in 1-2 hours.

Then on Thursday night through Friday, the storm will cross our mountains and gain strength over eastern Colorado. A strengthening storm is a recipe for significant snow, and that's what most models show with 4-8+ inches for many northern and northeastern mountains.

A lot of this snow should fall late on Thursday night through the sunrise on Friday morning.

On Friday, snow should continue during the day with a few more inches of accumulation favoring areas near and east of the divide. On Friday late afternoon and night, more snow showers could pop up and result in additional significant accumulations.

The bottom line is that Friday has a pretty good shot at being a powder morning for some northeastern mountains, and there could be at least a few more inches during Friday morning and midday which would add to the snow totals reported on Friday at 500am.

Looking at the weekend, snowfall is possible on both Saturday and Sunday, though the bullseye of the best chance for 6+ inches will shift to areas near and east of the divide, and roughly south of I-70 through to the eastern part of the southern mountains.

On Monday, we should see a break in the snow.

Then another storm will bring snow from later Monday through Tuesday and there could be some powder on Tuesday, especially over the northern and eastern mountains.

And it looks like the next storm should arrive sometime around Thursday, April 22.

Below is the multi-model forecast for next week, showing the average snow forecast from 51 versions of the European model. Like this week, it shows a high chance for significant snow, especially near and east of the divide. 

If this forecast verifies, next week could be similar to this week, and it might not be until the following weekend (April 24-25) when all of Colorado will see a return to sunshine and warm temperatures.

Stoke pictures!

I have a few more reader-submitted pictures to share over the coming week.

This was 18” of pure joy on Buffalo Pass, skiing with Steamboat Powdercats on Feb 7, 2019. This may have been the best day of the season. -Steve G.

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