Colorado Daily Snow

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

By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 11 months ago April 28, 2023

Friday powder

Summary

A fast-moving storm on Thursday night delivered 1-7 inches of snow with the deepest totals in the northeastern mountains. Friday morning will be chilly and powdery, and then we'll head into a warm and dry weather pattern through early next week. The next chance for a storm will be around May 3-5.

Short Term Forecast

Following dry weather on Thursday, the storm on Thursday night came through about as we expected. I was hoping for 2-5 inches well west of the divide with 4-8 inches closer to the divide.

Below are the snow reports as of Friday morning:

Northern Mountains

7” Breckenridge
7” Cameron Pass
7” Winter Park
5” Loveland
3” A-Basin
3” Copper
1” Vail (closed)

Central Mountains

4” Snowmass (closed)

The most snow fell close to the divide and at areas favored by a wind from the northwest, north, and north-northeast, and these areas included Cameron Pass, Winter Park, and Breckenridge (interestingly, Breckenridge can do well with a wind from the north-northwest which flows from lower elevation to higher elevation up the Blue River Valley).

Breckenridge:

Winter Park:

Now on Friday morning around sunrise, it looks like winter over the northern divide with temperatures in the teens.

And thanks to the early sunrises of late April, before I posted this update, I already received a picture of people enjoying the powder at Berthoud Pass early on Friday morning. Way to get after the new snow before the sun cooks it into mush!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday will be mostly dry across Colorado. We might see showers along the divide from Sunday through Tuesday but these will likely be confined to the higher mountains of the divide and the foothills just east of the divide. The high temperature on Friday will be in the 30s then we'll see a high in the 40s from Saturday to Tuesday.

Extended Forecast

We will head into a spring-time pattern with showers along the divide from April 30 to May 2, then maybe more showers and perhaps a period of steadier precipitation (rain and snow) from May 3-5, and then we could see another time for more showers and maybe steadier precipitation (rain and snow) from around May 8-11.

While the snowfall wanes here in Colorado, there is still a lot of snow falling across the world, and you can check that out on the Powder Finder. The map below is set to "Next 10 Days" of snowfall and in the "Customize" button I selected the "Global" region and location types as "All". Here is a direct link to the map: https://opensnow.com/explore/powder/map?compare=-snow-forecast-10d

With no major storms in the forecast and the calendar showing that it is nearly May, this will be my final full post of the 2022-2023 season (I'll create a brief wrap-up post on Saturday, April 29). Thank you so much for reading this season and for your support of OpenSnow (this is my dream job and dream company), and I am thankful that were we able to experience and enjoy the last ~6 months of consistent, and in places, deep snowfall:-)

Thanks for reading!

Joel Gratz

PS - I was just on the "No More Mondays" podcast and talked more about the business side of OpenSnow and how I thought about leaving my full-time job in 2010 to work on OpenSnow. Here is a link to the show.

Announcements

My final post of the season is today on Friday, April 28.

And even though our Daily Snow posts will take a break over the summer, remember that your OpenSnow All-Access subscription (list of all features) is good for 365 days.

Here are some things that you might find useful during the summer and fall:

- Forecasts Anywhere on Earth
- Live & Forecast Radar
- Wildfire Smoke Forecast Maps
- Estimated Trail Conditions
- Air Quality Forecast Maps
- Hourly Lightning Forecasts
- Historical Weather
- Offline Satellite & Terrain Maps

This means you can use OpenSnow to track the freeze/thaw cycle for corn snow and peak-bagging this spring, avoid lightning and wildfire smoke this summer, escape to the desert next fall, and find every powder day next winter.

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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