Talk about a turnaround!

In early November, we had very little snow on the ground and the locals were getting restless.

Fast-forward 2.5 months and the snowpack across the state of Colorado is well above average. It really doesn’t get much better than this!

When you look outside today on Thursday, you’ll notice that a few inches of fresh snow fell on Wednesday and Wednesday evening, and that there are still clouds and snow showers roaming around now on Thursday morning. Also, temperatures are cold, ranging from about +10F to -10F depending on exact location and elevation. The red numbers in the surface weather map below show the temperature, and the double pink asterisk denotes light snow.

Thursday will be the final day that our weather will be influenced by the departing storm to our east. Expect cold and partly cloudy conditions with snow showers, some of which could be intense during the afternoon as the sun warms the ground enough to help promote convective clouds and showers (this is the same process as a summer thunderstorm, but with less energy).

Friday will be the first day of our rebound as temperatures begin to warm (by 5-10 degrees) and the sun makes a real appearance. This fine weather will continue on Saturday and Sunday as temperatures continue to warm by another 5-10 degrees each day.

Expect comfortable temperatures, lots of sun, and dry weather through the weekend and most of next week.

Here is the precipitation forecast for Saturday, January 28th. High pressure over Colorado, and the main storm track is far to our north and east.

By next Thursday, February 2, the storm track will begin to shift to the east, but we’ll still be dry here in Colorado.

All three major models – American, Canadian, European – show that the storm projected to hit the west coast next Thursday (seen above) will move east and bring snow back to Colorado around February 4-5th. It’s too soon to know if this storm will deliver just modest snow amounts or if we could see a powder day during that weekend, so stay tuned.

Beyond February 4-5th, most models show an active weather pattern for the western US and Canada extending through mid-February, but of course we can’t know the details of each storm 10-15 days in advance, so let’s hope that this active weather pattern includes Colorado.

Thanks for reading and stay warm out there!

JOEL GRATZ

Geography Key

Northern Mountains
Steamboat, Granby, Beaver Creek, Vail, Ski Cooper, Copper, Breckenridge, Keystone, Loveland, Abasin, Winter Park, Berthoud Pass, Eldora, Rocky Mountain National Park, Cameron Pass

Along the Divide
Loveland, Abasin, Winter Park, Berthoud Pass

East of the Divide
Eldora, 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