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 January 14, 2022

Dribs and Drabs

Summary

On Friday, the northern, central, and eastern mountains will see some snow, but snow amounts will be light. Saturday through Tuesday will be dry and sunny with highs in the 20s to low 30s. Our next chances for snow will be around January 19 and January 22, but the storm track will not be favorable for significant snowfall. We may be waiting until closer to February to see a lot more snow.

Short Term Forecast

Thursday was mostly sunny and warm with daytime high temperatures in the mid-30s to mid-40s. Especially on south-facing slopes, the combination of sunshine and warm temperatures softened the snow a lot. This was fun to ski and ride, but remember that this soft and moist snow from Thursday will likely freeze on Thursday night, making for crunchy conditions on Friday.

Friday

On Friday, a strong storm with little moisture will track over Colorado. There is a surprisingly large range of snow forecasts, even now as the storm has arrived. Unfortunately, the surprisingly large range of snow forecasts are all centered on 1-4 inches, so no matter the eventual number of inches, amounts will generally be on the low side. The multi-model average forecast is below.

Based on the uncertainty that still exists in the forecast, I wouldn't be surprised to see anything from just a few flakes to 3-4 inches, and I have even lower confidence than yesterday as to which mountains will see the potential higher-end totals.

Other than the new snowflakes, the main weather story on Friday will be temperatures that will be in the teens and hold steady or cool throughout the day. It'll feel a lot colder than Thursday. And the snow surface on Thursday might be pretty crunchy, at least in spots that saw soft/moist snow on Thursday and areas that were not groomed on Thursday night.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday

All four days will be dry, skies will be mostly sunny, and temperatures will be reasonable with highs in the 20s.

Next Chances for Snow

We should see storms brush by Colorado around Wednesday, January 19, and Saturday, January 22. Snowfall on these dates could range from nothing to maybe a few inches. The chance for significant snow from either of these systems is very, very low because the general storm track is not a favorable one for Colorado as it is located just a bit too far to the north and east.

Extended Forecast

I am not completely throwing in the towel on significant snowfall for the rest of January, but I'm almost doing so. I think that the current unfavorable storm track will continue through most of the rest of the month and may not change until we get close to February.

I posted graphics below from the American GEFS Extended model, and most of the longer-range forecast models are in general agreement with this model.

Next week's weather pattern will remain unfavorable.

For the final week of January, it looks like more of the same.

Finally, around the beginning of February, things might change, with the stormy weather shifting to the west.

And then by early February, the western half of North America should be in a stormier weather pattern, and hopefully, the storminess will extend into the Rockies and Colorado.

I hate to be looking at 15-30+ day forecasts for signs of significant snow, but that appears to be where we are at the moment. At least our current snowpack is solid, upcoming temperatures will be reasonable (not too hot), and the sun angle is still pretty low, which all means that the snow that's currently on the ground will mostly stick around except for lower elevation south-facing slopes.

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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