Wednesday morning offered fun powder at most mountains.

The trick was getting to the snow before the sun turned the powder into mashed potatoes. Some mountains were shielded by clouds on Wednesday morning, which allowed cold powder to hang on for a few hours longer than expected. Other ways to get cold powder included finding north-facing slopes that were protected from the sun, and also finding powder that is shaded by trees.

Another interesting part of the last storm was the temperature. Readings were warm, so the best snow was near or above 10,000 feet. I was in the front range backcountry on Wednesday and found only 1 inch at the parking lot at 9,400 feet, but found 6-8 inches above 10,500 feet.

Now on Thursday morning, clouds are covering the sky. This happened earlier than I expected as I thought we’d see more sunshine today. Here was the view from Loveland at sunrise, looking east, capturing a few rays of sun sneaking their way under the mid-level cloud deck.

The rest of Thursday should be mostly cloudy and also mostly dry. We might see a few showers pop up, especially during the afternoon, but these shouldn’t produce much precipitation.

The next storm will be a slow-mover that will hang out to the south of Colorado on Friday and Saturday. This storm track will bring winds from the south and east, and this should favor the southern mountains and also the mountains that are close to and east of the divide.

Snow should start in the southern mountains on Thursday night and continue into Friday.

For non-southern mountains, expect snow to intensify on Friday afternoon and Friday night. This timing means that the best powder will likely be on Saturday morning. Also, we might see clouds and snow continue for most of Saturday, and this could keep the sun at bay and ensure that the powder stays relatively cold. That said, similar to the past storm, temperatures during this storm will be rather warm, so head to the highest elevations to find the lightest powder, likely over 9,000-10,000 feet.

Here is the CAIC WRF model’s precipitation forecast through Saturday at midnight.

Multiply these totals by about 10 to estimate snowfall.

This translates to 10-25 inches near and east of the divide, which might be on the high side, but also, due to the duration of the snow, this is possible.

The southern mountains are in the 5-10 inch range, but I think this is low as most areas should be able to grab 10+ inches.

For other central and northern mountains that are west of the divide, we’ll need some luck to get bigger snow totals. Pieces of energy will rotate counter-clockwise around the storm, moving from east-to-west across the state. If some of this energy happens to move over a certain ski area, that area could receive a quick 3-6 inches in 1-2 hours. It is impossible to know exactly where this energy will track, hence the uncertainty in the forecast. That said, in the map above, you can see a tongue of higher precipitation amounts stretching into southern Summit County, near Keystone, Breckenridge, and Copper. These areas also received higher snow totals from the previous storm, and because the next storm has a similar setup, these areas could get good snowfall from this storm as well.

If you just blacked out due to all of the weather talk, here’s the recap. Friday should be good in the south, Saturday should be good everywhere with the deepest amounts near and east of the divide, and Sunday morning could also be good, especially in the southern and eastern mountains.

We’ll see a break in the snow on Sunday and the sun should turn the powder into heavier mashed potatoes by midday unless we get lucky and get more clouds to cover the sky. This could happen, but model forecasts for clouds three days away can’t be trusted, so we’ll hope for the best and I’ll update you if I see anything that I trust in the models.

Monday morning will be dry, then our next storm will bring snow from Monday afternoon through Wednesday morning. This storm will be colder (yea!), so most mountains will see fluffier powder all the way down to base areas. I think Tuesday will be a fun powder day with snow getting deeper through the day, and Wednesday morning might be fantastic in the northern mountains if additional snow falls on Tuesday night.

After that, we should be dry for a few days, then we will see our next storm sometime between April 8-12th.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

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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