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 November 26, 2021

Fantasy Land

Summary

Thanksgiving Day was sunny with warming temperatures. Looking ahead, I see little or no chance for snow through about December 2nd, though temperatures will allow for some snowmaking at night. Starting around December 3rd, the weather might become more favorable for snow, but there is no specific storm to track that far into the future.

Short Term Forecast

Thanksgiving Day started out cold with temperatures in the single digits. Then readings warmed into the 20s and 30s by early afternoon. It was a gorgeous day to be outside with decent snow coverage at higher elevations (though there is still limited open terrain).

Now on Friday morning, the main story is that temperatures are 15-25°F warmer than they were on Thursday morning and are sitting in the 20s right around sunrise. We'll stick with these warmer temperatures for about the next seven days with on-mountain daytime highs in the 30s and nighttime lows in the 20s (snowmaking will be possible at times).

And…that's really it for the "Short-Term Forecast". We'll see dry weather, a lot of sunshine, and comfortable-to-warm temperatures through about Friday, December 3. The main storm track will be to our north and our only chance for light precipitation will be around December 3rd in the northeastern mountains.

Extended Forecast

I am scouring all signals from all of the longer-range models to see when the storm track will push back toward Colorado. If we head all the way out to the Fantasy Land of weather model forecasting (about 10+ days into the future), most of the longer-range models do show more active weather heading into the central West Coast and the central Rockies during the week of December 6-10.

That sounds nice, but a few days ago, it looked like this more active weather pattern would start around December 2. Now we're talking around December 6. The promise of snow keeps pushing further into the future.

In the past, we've seen the longer-range forecast models promise some type of shift in the overall storm track only to see this shift 'delayed' for days or weeks. I hope that our snow fortunes will turn around sooner rather than later, but I don't want to over-promise.

For now, we'll slide on the snow that we have and I'll keep you updated if the stormy trend 10+ days from now stays in the forecast or continues to be delayed and delayed.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

PS – Scientists need your help to collect precipitation observations during winter. Join the community, and during winter storms, share what type of precipitation is falling from the sky. To sign up, text COrainsnow to 855-909-0798. You’ll receive 3 intro texts over the first 3 days, including the first one sharing the web app so you can send your observations. This is a NASA-funded project led by Lynker, the Desert Research Institute, and the University of Nevada, Reno.

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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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