Colorado Daily Snow

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By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 2 years ago December 31, 2021

Friday Storm Day

Summary

Snow will fall all day on Friday and continue into Friday night which means that both Friday and Saturday's first chair should be fun times to ski and ride. We'll have dry weather from January 2-4, then the northern mountains may see snow return from January 5-9.

Short Term Forecast

The powder is here (or is coming) for most mountains, but it's hard to be excited by snow this morning.

The Fire

On Thursday, a fast-moving wildfire destroyed hundreds of homes in the area of Louisville and Superior, just south of Boulder and north of Denver. The fire was potentially sparked by a downed power line, and it moved very quickly due to wind gusts of 75-100+ mph. Most reports show that the fire destroyed at least hundreds of homes. I have friends that were directly impacted, and I am sure that many people in our OpenSnow community of snow lovers also lost homes and businesses. It's hard for me to be excited about powder in the mountains when a large part of a community burned and will take years to rebuild a sense of normalcy. Thankfully, it seems like the number of injuries is very, very low, which is perhaps the most important and comforting fact. I'll write a full forecast today but you may notice a lack of enthusiasm in my tone. 

Thursday & Thursday Night

Snow fell throughout the day on Thursday and into Thursday night. The mountains favored by flow from the west-southwest were the winners (again) with 7-15 inches by Friday morning. This included 13-15" at Crested Butte, 7" at Monarch, 10" at Silverton, 9" at Purgatory, and 13" at Wolf Creek. Other central and northern mountains were generally in the 2-5 inch range. If your mountain got a lot of snow, then Friday morning will be another time with deeper powder. If your mountain got less snow, conditions are still soft since it's snowed every day for the last week.

Friday & Friday Night

On Friday morning and midday, the southern and central mountains will see moderate to intense snow thanks to a favorable wind direction from the west-southwest. Also, the far northern mountains around Steamboat and Cameron Pass will see intense snow thanks to a cold front that will stall near the area. The mountains in between, along the I-70 corridor, could see lighter snow for most of the day as they are not favored by winds from the west-southwest and the cold front will stall to the north, between I-70 and Steamboat. So, for areas that are far north or in the central and southern mountains, Friday should offer free powder refills each day, and for the I-70 area, there might not be a lot of powder during the first 2/3rds of the day.

On Friday afternoon, the cold front will eventually reach the I-70 corridor. This is when the intense snow should begin, so last chair near the I-70 mountains could be the deepest chair of the day, though also, if the snow comes in a touch later, the best powder might miss last chair and could be waiting for Saturday morning.

On Friday night, moderate-to-intense snow should fall on most mountains through about midnight, then we'll see light-to-moderate snow continue through Saturday at sunrise thanks to decent moisture and continued favorable wind directions ranging from the west-southwest around Wolf Creek in the south to northwest for the northern mountains.

Saturday

First chair on Saturday morning should be very fun thanks to a soft base from the snow on Friday as well as the overnight snowfall on Friday night. The snow on Friday night should be fluffy due to cold temperatures. Speaking of temperatures, they will be steady or falling through the day on Saturday and hover around 0°F at the upper elevations, so dress as warm as you can when you head out in the morning. Any snow that continues on Saturday morning should wane by midday as temperatures get very cold and we lose a lot of moisture.

Total Snowfall Friday into Saturday

I still feel good about accumulations around 10-18 inches for most mountains with 18-36 inches for spots favored by a flow from the west-southwest (some central and southern mountains).

The multi-model snow forecast shows the intense snow on Friday with snow also sticking around through Friday night.

Extended Forecast

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday will be dry days. This will be a time for resorts to dig out and potentially open any terrain that hasn't opened yet. High temperatures will be in the teens on Sunday and will rise into the 20s by Monday and Tuesday.

From Wednesday, January 5 through Sunday, January 9, there should be one or two rounds of snowfall that will favor areas near and north of I-70. There could be a lot of snow for these areas, or the most snow could miss us to the north. The secret to great powder skiing and riding is low expectations.

Then during the second week of January, it looks like it will be dry and warmer as high pressure moves over the western United States.

Starting around the third week of January, the longer-range models show storminess returning to the western US. While that's a good signal, I've also seen that there is sometimes a bias in the longer-range models which show storminess returning sooner than it actually does. For now, I'll pencil in a return to snow during the second half of January, but that's a low-confidence forecast.

Thanks for reading.

JOEL GRATZ

PS – The significant changes to OpenSnow that I've talked about are now live. If you're an All-Access subscriber (thank you!), you'll see no changes. If you are not an All-Access subscriber, here is an FAQ with more details about the upcoming changes, and we hope that eventually, we'll earn your support. Also, you can watch 2-3 minute videos about these changes made by myself, our Tahoe forecaster BA, and our Utah forecaster Evan. And finally, check out our Utah forecaster Evan's Twitter thread showing exactly how he uses OpenSnow's All-Access features to track powder.

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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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