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 March 25, 2023

I have run out of creative titles, so let's just go with "Snow"

Summary

Snow, snow, and more snow. Friday night's storm delivered 2-11 inches and on Saturday morning we will enjoy this powder and deal with the very cold temperatures. The next rounds of snow will be on Sunday night, then later next week between about March 30-31. After that, more snow is likely from April 2-7. Our snowpack in Colorado is close to hitting a record, we may not get there, but this is FUN!

Short Term Forecast

Friday was mostly dry with just a few snow showers around.

Friday night is when the latest storm crossed Colorado and delivered 2-11 inches. The deepest totals were in the central mountains, though all parts of the state saw at least some snow.

Below are the snow totals from Friday night.

Northern Mountains

7” Steamboat
5” Beaver Creek
5” Vail
4” Winter Park
3” Breckenridge
3” Copper

Central Mountains

11” Irwin
9” Snowmass
8” Powderhorn
7” Aspen Mountain
6” Aspen Highlands
6” Sunlight
5” Buttermilk
3” Crested Butte
3” Monarch

Southern Mountains

6” Telluride
4” Silverton
4” Wolf Creek

Saturday will start with riding the powder that fell on Friday night. In addition to the powder, one other thing that arrived on Friday night was very cold air. Temperatures now on Saturday morning are between about -5°F to +5°F and the high will only be in the single digits above zero. Otherwise on Saturday, the weather will continue to be mixed with times of sunshine, times of clouds, and times of snow showers.

Sunday will be another mixed day with some sunshine, clouds, and snow showers, and the temperature will continue to be cold with highs around 10°F.

Sunday night through Monday midday will bring another round of snow. We could see anything from 2 inches to 7+ inches across all mountain ranges (I have low confidence about where it will snow t the most). Keep your eye on the snow stake cams to see if Monday shapes up to be a low-to-moderate powder day. Below is a three-run average snow forecast from our OpenSnow 3km high-resolution model, and other high-resolution models show somewhat similar snow totals but target somewhat different regions of the state. 

Monday will be another cold day with a high temperature in the single digits, so dress warmly to start the week.

Extended Forecast

Tuesday and Wednesday will be dry and warmer with mostly sunny skies and a high temperature of around 30 degrees. It'll feel like spring for these two days!

The next storm will be later next week, around Thursday, March 30 to Friday, March 31. All of the longer-range forecast models show that this storm will bring us snow, but they differ about the storm's timing by up to 24 hours with some showing snow Wednesday night to Friday morning and others showing snow from later Thursday through early Saturday. These forecasts will coalesce and we'll be able to figure out the storm's timing in a few days. In terms of snowfall amounts, most forecasts show a moderate amount of snow with 4-12 inch totals, though if the storm strengthens to our east and wraps moisture and storm energy back into Colorado, we could see a few spots go over one foot of snow.

In the longer range, it is possible that the majority of next weekend (April 1-2) will be dry, then there is a high chance for one or more storms during the time from later in the weekend (Sunday, April 2) through the rest of the week (Friday, April 7). Yesterday, it appeared that this first week of April would bring a flow from the northwest with snow favoring the northern mountains, though now it appears that the weather pattern could be more west-to-east with snow for all mountains.

The snowpack in Colorado is close to a record right now. I am not sure that we'll get to record status even with the storms during the next two weeks, but even being close to a 36-year record is amazing. What a season!

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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