Colorado Daily Snow

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

By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 2 years ago April 21, 2021

Lots of pictures & more snow in the forecast

Summary

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, we'll see times of light snow with a few inches of accumulation. The weekend should be mostly dry and Sunday will be the warmer of the two days. Then we'll look ahead to storms around April 27-28, April 30-May 1, and around May 3-5. Winter won't leave without a fight! Also, please read the full post to see many (awesome) reader-submitted photos.

Short Term Forecast

Tuesday was a gorgeous day with sunshine across the state and a fun powder morning across the northern and northeastern mountains.

Now on Wednesday, and continuing through Friday night, we will see lots of clouds and times of snow showers. It will not snow during this entire time, though I do not have much confidence about when and where we will see the steadiest snow showers and the most snow. We might see softer snow conditions on Thursday or Friday, or even on Saturday morning, across the northern mountains, and I say this just because waiting until later in the week will give the atmosphere more time to develop the showers.

The snow forecast above shows the average multi-model prediction from Wednesday morning through Saturday morning. I have low expectations with maybe 6 inches of snow across multiple days. Maybe a few showers will surprise us with a couple of inches of snow in a short period of time, so there is some upside potential, but again, I am keeping my expectations low.

Saturday will be warmer with highs in the 30s to low 40s and it should be dry for most mountains, though a few showers could hang around.

Sunday will be very warm with highs in the 40s to 50s and the sky should be dry and partly cloudy.

Extended Forecast

Looking ahead to the next chances for snow, I see three potential storms in the next two weeks. The first storm could be on April 27-28, the second storm could be around the end of next week on April 30 to May 1, and the third storm could be around early the following week on May 3-5. We will watch to see if any of these storms will bring enough snow to create late-season powder days, and it seems like winter will hang tough through at least early May.

Reader Photos

I am so thankful that readers sent in photos throughout the season, and they ranged from pictures of deep powder to sunny family days on the hill. Here are the final pictures for this season, and I look forward to posting more photos in the fall and early winter.

Here is 10+ inches of fresh winter-quality cold smoke, completely unaffected by wind or sun. An amazing powder day in mid-April. -Steve D.

I take my 5 yr old daughter and niece to A-Basin's Molly Hogan lift on the regular to train them up. We have one ski setup and one snowboard setup and they swap back and forth. They are all focus, future shred Queens, Gigi and The Squirrel. -Lucia

This crazy deep photo is from a legendary Wolf Creek day referred to as "Deep Tuesday", circa the early '80s. A cold night with lingering storm moisture left 18+ inches. You can see its liquid nature was so light. You couldn't open your mouth even a little because the cold sharp dendrite crystals would irritate your
lungs into a huge coughing fit. So Epic. So deep. -Jeff Greer

I would like to say that missing 19" of powder at Wolf Creek during the "bomb cyclone" on March 13, 2019 was the worst thing that happened that day, but it wasn't. My one ride down the mountain was in a sled as I suffered a massive heart attack at the top of the Treasure Lift. Fortunately, I was skiing with a friend that recognized something was amiss, and more importantly, we were next to the ski patrol shack. That group knew their stuff and quickly got me headed for the medical care I desperately needed, although it did take 5 hours to make it to Grand Junction that day. The next time you see a ski patroller, take a moment to tell them you appreciate EVERYTHING they do! My mantra since then is “Do all you can, while you can, before you can’t!"  -Jim F.

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

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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