Sunday night and Monday night brought snow accumulations to many mountains with up to about 12 inches in the northern mountains and at least 2-4 inches for most other areas.

On Tuesday, clouds and snow showers hung across the northern mountains while other areas were sunnier and dry.

On Wednesday morning, clouds and snow showers are again hanging on across the northern mountains. In the satellite image below, taken around sunrise on Wednesday morning, the low-altitude clouds shrouding the mountain peaks are shown in blue.

Wednesday

Wednesday should be dry and mostly sunny for most mountains with clouds and light snow showers for the northern mountains. The main story will be cold temperatures which will start the day around 0°F and only warm into the teens.

Thursday

Thursday will be a similar day to Wednesday as we'll have cold temperatures in the single digits and the teens, mostly sunny skies for most of the state, and low clouds hanging on across some northern mountains and especially for lower-elevation areas east of the divide (the towns and cities of the front range) as a cold front moves through during the morning.

On Thursday midday and Thursday evening, snow should begin to fall across the far northern mountains near and north and east of Steamboat and also across the front range foothills and plains.

Snow Thursday night to Friday midday

A storm will just clip northern Colorado and bring another push of cold air and snow during the time from Thursday night through Friday midday.

The latest forecasts have trended the storm to take a bit more of a northern and eastern track, which is not as favorable for a lot of our skiable terrain.

A multi-model average snow forecast for Thursday night into Friday morning keeps the 6+ inch totals confined to areas north of Steamboat and along the continental divide north of Winter Park, north to Rocky Mountain National Park and Cameron Pass.

Below, our high-resolution model, which is based on the American GFS model, keeps the deeper 3-6+ inch totals near and east of the divide and into the front range foothills.

And below, the high-resolution CAIC model, which is based on the American HRRR model, keeps the deeper 3-6+ inch totals at the lower-elevation front range foothills with a secondary area of snow near and just south of I-70.

This is a fair amount of uncertainty for a storm that will begin in 24-36 hours so overall my confidence in snow totals by Friday midday is low. From a perspective of 'what do I do with this information?', I'd say to keep an eye on Friday morning for potential freshies near and north of I-70, though the best chance for deeper accumulations will likely be near and east of the divide, close to and north of Eldora.

Once the storm on Friday clears out during the afternoon, we'll enter a period of mostly dry weather.

The weekend of November 19-20 will be dry and sunny with warmer temperatures topping out in the 20s.

Then on Monday and Tuesday, November 21-22, the sunny and dry weather will continue with highs in the 30s.

On Wednesday, November 23, a storm will likely track south of Colorado. We might eke out a bit of snow, but the main impact of this system will be cooler temperatures on Wednesday and Thursday with highs dropping back into the 20s.

Looking out to the final 5-7 days of November, there is high confidence that storminess will anchor itself over the Pacific Northwest.

This late-November weather pattern should bring a LOT of snow to the Pacific Northwest around British Columbia and Washington State. Here in Colorado, chances favor little or no snow from this pattern, though it's always possible for a part of the west-coast storminess to break off and head east into the Rockies and send us some flakes.

Thanks for reading!

Joel Gratz

PS - I have two more in-person talks planned for early December. I hope to see you there, and maybe significant snow will return by these dates;-)

Upcoming In-Person Presentations

Join me for in-person presentations this fall. These talks are fun (yes, powder science IS fun:-), and I'll discuss thoughts about the upcoming season and snow forecasting tips and tricks. Also, your attendance at many of these talks supports a local non-profit, so thank you for coming!

• Tue, Dec 6. Summit County
  - Presentation in the evening
  - More details soon!
  
  
• Fri, Dec 9. Basalt (Bristlecone Mountain Sports)
  - 700pm Doors Open & Refreshments
  - 730pm Presentation by Joel Gratz
  - Registration opens on Nov 18
  - Proceeds benefit Roaring Fork Conservancy
  
  

New Feature: Forecast Anywhere

You can now get a forecast for any location (on land) across the globe, and you can save any of these "Custom Locations" as a favorite. 

Any "Custom Location" comes with estimated 24-hour snowfall. This means that you can set a "Custom Location" for your favorite backcountry spot and get estimated snowfall and estimated snowfall history. Since most backcountry areas do not have snow measurement equipment located at that exact spot, this feature will be a useful way to get a general estimate of how much snow has fallen.

To set your first "Custom Location", make sure that you are using the latest version of our iOS or Android apps (this works on our website, too!), then go to the Map tab, tap any spot on the map, and you're on the way to creating your first "Custom Location". You can learn more about Forecast Anywhere in this short how-to article.

Being able to get the forecast and save points as "Custom Locations" means that you can use our forecast data for any place you'd like to go - for backcountry skiing, camping, or even to see how much we think it'll snow in your backyard :-) And remember that "Custom Locations" works worldwide, so if you're traveling to a spot on the globe where we don't have a resort-based forecast (we have forecasts for many spots outside the US), go ahead and set up a "Custom Location".

And the last note is that "Custom Locations" are private and no other OpenSnow users will be able to see the "Custom Locations" that you create.

Please check out this new feature and let us know what you think! 

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