Wednesday was a nearly perfect bluebird day over Colorado. There were a few high clouds over the northeastern part of the state during the first half of the day, then those moved away and everyone saw full-on sunshine. Mid-mountain temperatures rose to the mid-40s and conditions were soft.

Now on Thursday morning, the water vapor satellite image shows more high-level moisture moving toward Colorado (gray and blue colors). We’ll see this moisture in the form of high clouds that may filter the sun at times.

The high clouds will come and go through next Tuesday, but it will remain warm enough that the snow surface should soften each day as mid-mountain highs push into the 40s.

The snow forecast through early next week shows that all of the action will stay to our north and over the northeast. There might be enough moisture to create a shower over the northern Colorado mountains at some point, but I doubt it. The near-surface level of the atmosphere will remain very dry and warm.

Models are consistently showing a storm for the middle and end of next week.

We may see breezy and cloudier weather next Wednesday (March 22) with a few showers, and then snow will likely hit all mountains on Thursday (March 23). The University of Utah ensemble forecast shows snow showers returning to Colorado by Wednesday.

It appears that most mountains should see 5-10 inches of snow between next Wednesday night and next Friday morning. We’ll focus on amounts in a few days when the storm is closer, but I wanted to throw out this range now as the storm should be potent enough to produce significant snow. Thursday will likely be the best powder day (if there is enough snow to cover the harder base) and Friday morning should offer soft turns as well. The temperature during this storm will not be very cold, but it should be cold enough for snow to fall down to at least 7,000-8,000 feet, which is near or below most mountain bases.

Following this system, next March 24-26 should be dry, then we will likely see another storm around March 27-28, with perhaps another system during the final day or two of March.

Thanks for reading!

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, 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