It's Friday morning and it's gorgeous. There are no clouds over Colorado, just sunny blue skies. The morning satellite image is amazing showing snow cover over the peaks and clear skies everywhere.

Friday and Saturday will be dry and warm with on-mountain high temperatures in the 50s. These will be classic spring riding days. On Saturday late afternoon there will be just a low chance for a shower over the northern mountains.

On Saturday night and Sunday, the atmosphere will begin to get agitated. The northern mountains will see a few showers on Saturday night, and there is a better chance for showers on Sunday. In addition to the showers on Sunday, there will be the threat of lightning over some northern and eastern mountains, so keep that in mind if you're heading out, especially in the backcountry.

To figure out if lightning could be a threat, check out OpenSummit.com (and/or download the app). Just like OpenSnow, you can set favorite locations and then quickly glance at the forecast to see if there are any weather issues for upcoming adventures.

Below is the OpenSummit forecast for Berthoud Pass and it quickly shows a few things.

First, the "Estimated Trail Conditions" shows if there is likely snow on the ground, or if recent rain has made trails potentially muddy.

Second, each day comes with a color-coded "risk" symbol for precipitation, lightning, and wind, the three primary weather-related risks when getting out into the mountains. You can see for Sunday that the lightning icon is colored yellow, and looking at the hourly forecast below, we can see that there is a medium chance for lightning between noon and 5 pm. This forecast will change as Sunday gets closer, so it's useful to check back a few times before heading out.

We have thousands of forecast locations (trails, mountain summits, towns) on OpenSummit and you can find them by going to the maps screen and zooming around or searching for them.

From Sunday afternoon through Thursday morning, we will see multiple rounds of snow and lower-elevation rain move through all mountains and the most snow and rain will favor the northern and eastern areas.

Below is the multi-model snow forecast from Sunday afternoon through Thursday morning. The purple and pink colors show the best chance for 6-12 inches of thicker-quality total snowfall during three days.

Temperatures will be cool enough for snow above about 8,000-9,000 feet, but temperatures won't be too cold, so the snow that does fall will be on the thicker side. A few days of thicker snow could create soft-ish conditions.

The best potential for deeper snow and riding powder could be Monday morning and also on Wednesday, though I can't rule out at least some snow on Tuesday and Thursday mornings as well.

Winter is hanging on, and if you want to enjoy lift-serviced riding in the new snow, Arapahoe Basin, Breckenridge, and Loveland are still open.

Next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (May 6-8) should be warm and dry. Next week is shaping up just like this current week where we see stormy weather earlier in the week and calm and warm and dry weather later in the week.

Looking ahead, we should see the third week in a row where the early days are stormy and the later days could be drier. The longer-range models show yet another stormy period between about Sunday, May 9, and Thursday, May 13. Winter...can't stop, won't stop!

Because of the upcoming storms, I'll keep writing daily updates through the middle of next week.

Finally, as we think about the transition to spring and summer...

We now have snow forecasts for southern hemisphere ski areas! Use the map to zoom around and search for your favorite mountain. Or check out the powder finder (below).

Also, as I showed earlier in the post, check out OpenSummit (website & app) which provides mountain-specific weather forecasts for hikes and summits across Colorado and the United States. Importantly, we include a forecast for lightning risk which is especially useful when planning adventures near and above treeline. And there could be some lightning to watch out for on Sunday.

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