Thursday was mostly sunny in the morning and powder conditions ranged from soft leftovers from Wednesday's storm to untouched snow in areas that were not ridden on Wednesday.

On Thursday afternoon and Thursday night, an area of storm energy traversed Colorado from west to east and this generated snow showers and light accumulations. While most mountains picked up 1-3 inches, we saw up to 4 inches at Breckenridge and 5 inches at Beaver Creek, and this new snow will freshen things up now on Friday morning.

Friday will be similar to Thursday as we will see mixed weather with some clouds and some sun and some snow showers. The high temperature should be in the upper teens to low 20s.

Friday night will be the next chance for a period of steadier snow and perhaps sneaky high accumulations. A strong-ish wave of energy will move directly across Colorado and most of the higher-resolution forecast models are showing 4-8 inches of snow on average with up to 10-12 inches possible in spots. Temperatures will be colder compared to Wednesday's storm, and this will lead to fluffier snow quality.

While I have moderate-to-high confidence that most mountains will see 4-8 inches of snow, the ability to pin down the location of the deeper totals is still elusive as all higher-resolution forecast models continue to flip-flop a bit. For example, the CAIC WRF 2km model below shows somewhat different forecasts when comparing the forecast made on Wednesday evening…

…to the forecast made early on Thursday morning.

As usual, we'll have to watch the snow stakes and see if and where any upside surprises occur. Regardless of the exact number of inches, most areas should see a refresh on Friday night with fluffier powder and cold temperatures on Saturday morning.

Saturday should start with powder due to the snow that falls on Friday night, and snow showers could linger through midday. The temperature will be cold with morning lows near or colder than 0°F and a high in the single digits.

Saturday Night and Sunday should be mainly dry with a few snow showers hanging around and a chilly high temperature on Sunday around 10°F.

Sunday night into Monday will likely bring another round of steadier snow. The storm energy will be rather strong and the moisture will be limited due to the cold airmass, so we'll have to see which of these factors 'wins' and if we can generate enough snow for some powder on Monday morning.

For next week, the forecast is holding steady.

Monday midday through most of Wednesday will be dry. Monday will be chilly with a high temperature of around 10°F, then Tuesday and Wednesday will feel like spring with a high temperature of around 30°F.

Wednesday night to Friday will be when the next storm brings snow to all mountains in Colorado and there could be powder on Thursday and/or Friday.

Then we might have a break in the snow around Saturday, April 1st (that's not a joke:-), with another storm possibly favoring the northern mountains around Sunday, April 2 to Monday, April 3.

Thanks for reading!

Joel Gratz

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