Colorado Daily Snow

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By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 2 years ago January 13, 2022

A little fluff on Friday

Summary

Thursday will be the warmest day of the week. Then on Friday, a storm will bring colder air and light snow with a few inches of accumulation and maybe a bit more than that in a few spots. The holiday weekend will be sunny and dry with comfortable temperatures. Looking far out in search of snow, we might see some flakes later next week, but an overall change to a snowier pattern is far away.

Short Term Forecast

Wednesday was another sunny and dry day, and on-mountain temperatures rose into the 20s and 30s.

Now on Thursday, we'll see one more day of sunshine, and temperatures will rise to their warmest levels of the week with most mountains seeing readings in the 30s and some getting into the 40s.

A change in the weather will occur on Friday morning as a moderately-strong storm cruises over the northeastern corner of Colorado (on its way to bring snow, ice, and rain to the east coast on Sunday and Monday).

Here in Colorado, I expect that the northern and central mountains and areas east of the divide to see snowflakes from Friday around sunrise through Friday evening, with any lingering snow likely ending by Friday at midnight.

The storm will be somewhat strong (a good thing), but it will lack moisture (a bad thing), so snow amounts will be light.

The multi-model snow forecast shows just 1-4 inches for most northern, central, and eastern mountains.

The OpenSnow 1km high-resolution model (below) shows about the same thing as the multi-model forecast (above) with a general 1-4 inches across the northern, central, and eastern mountains. However, notice that some spots could see up to 4-6 inches.

I have high confidence that most snow amounts on Friday will be light, and the best chance for softer conditions will be from Friday midday through the afternoon.

I have low confidence about exact snow amounts at each mountain as all models have been waffling around a bit with the details of the forecast. A wind direction from the northwest and north-northwest should favor spots around Vail, Cooper, Breckenridge, Loveland, and Winter Park, so maybe those mountains could see a bit of bonus snow if things come together as we hope.

On Friday, temperatures will be chilly, in the teens, and will be steady or dropping throughout the day. These temperatures should mean that any snow that falls will be light and fluffy.

Extended Forecast

The holiday weekend of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday will be dry and sunny with morning lows in the single digits and teens and highs in the 20s. Snow conditions will be fine – our base is in good shape, most terrain is open, and the cold temperatures should keep the snow surface firm yet grippy.

The dry weather will continue past the holiday weekend and into Tuesday, January 18th.

Then, between about Wednesday, January 19, through Saturday, January 22, one or two storms could clip Colorado as they move from the northern Rockies into the eastern United States. This is NOT a favorable storm track for us a see a lot of snow, but most versions of most models show at least some snow for us between January 19-22.

Unfortunately, throughout most of the rest of January, we will likely be stuck in the funk of a weather pattern that keeps cold air and storminess over the eastern half of the United States while the western half of the United States is drier and warmer. Colorado is on the edge, caught between the cold/storminess to the east and the warm/dry weather to the west, so we can see occasional snow and colder temperatures during this time, but significant snowfall is very unlikely.

Fortunately, our temperatures during the next 2+ weeks should be reasonable, in the 20s and 30s for highs, so our snow will stick around and snow conditions should stay pretty good. Also, fortunately, most longer-range models continue to show a flip toward stormier weather with higher chances for snow toward the end of January and into early February.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

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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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