Colorado Daily Snow

Heads up, there may be fresher snow! Read the latest Colorado Daily Snow

By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 1 year ago January 3, 2023

Multiple chances for snow followed by a stormy setup

Summary

Snowfall will continue on Tuesday and even into Wednesday, then we should see a short break on Thursday before another storm brings snow on Friday into Saturday. After that, weak(ish) storms may produce additional snow around Jan. 9 and Jan. 11-12, and then a stormy weather pattern may return to the entire western U.S. starting around Jan 16.

Short Term Forecast

Monday was an interesting day weatherwise and most forecast models did not produce an accurate snowfall prediction. The storm moved across Colorado more slowly than anticipated, and that allowed a wind from the south and southwest to continue, with the result being a lot more snow for the southern mountains.

As of early Tuesday morning, Purgatory is reporting another 14 inches from Monday and Monday night (which makes a 38-inch storm total), and my estimate is that another 7-14 inches fell at Wolf Creek (they haven't reported as of the time that I am writing). 

Elsewhere, Irwin picked up 10 inches on Monday and Monday night, and Powderhorn's snow stake cam shows 6 inches of fluffy snow from Monday night.

With the wind from the south and southwest on Monday and Monday evening, most other mountains saw little to no snow, and the snowfall only started picking up very late Monday night into Tuesday morning as the wind direction began to shift to blow from more of a westerly direction. The 24-hour snow reports at most central and northern mountains are in the 1-4 inch range now on Tuesday morning.

From Tuesday morning through Wednesday afternoon, lingering moisture and a flow from the west(ish) should keep snow showers going across the northern and central mountains with an additional 2-8 inches of accumulation and soft snow conditions developing on Tuesday and likely continuing through Wednesday morning. Also, a southwest wind is lingering over the southern mountains and this could produce more snow than expected, perhaps another 3-6+ inches? This has been a frustrating storm to forecast and the lack of confidence is continuing!

Looking ahead to life after this storm, Thursday should be a dry day with sunshine, though the latest models keep a bit of moisture and a few snow showers over Colorado, so we'll see if we can actually get a fully dry and sunny day.

Then the next storm will bring snow from Friday through Saturday. This does not appear to be a strong system and 3-6 inches seems like a reasonable first forecast with maybe some upside potential. The best chance for riding softer snow should be Friday midday/afternoon and Saturday's first chair.

Extended Forecast

For next week, we could see a very weak storm around Monday, January 9, and then a somewhat stronger storm could bring low-to-moderate snow amounts around Wednesday, January 11 to Thursday, January 12.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the longer-range outlook is that a stormy pattern will likely cover much of the western U.S. starting around Monday, January 16. It's too soon to understand if this generally stormy pattern will lead to a lot of snow here in Colorado, but at least a stormy pattern sets up the potential for a lot of snow, so it'll be something to watch over the coming 1-2 weeks.

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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