Colorado Daily Snow
By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 6 years ago November 12, 2017
We might get lucky with snow on Friday
Summary
Sunday through Thursday will offer similar weather with temperatures cold enough for snowmaking at night and then mostly sunny during the days with highs in the upper 30s to mid-40s. It now appears that a storm will drop far enough south to bring snow to Colorado from Thursday night through Friday night with an early estimate of 3-6 inches for the central and northern mountains. After that, once again we'll need some luck for the northern storm track to drop south into Colorado.
Short Term Forecast
Taking a moment to look back, a weak system slid across northern Colorado on Saturday afternoon. This storm only impacted the far northern mountains, like Rocky Mountain National Park and Cameron Pass, which each received a coating of new snow. Here is the webcam from Cameron Pass showing the brief snowfall around 1 pm on Saturday.
Looking ahead, the weather from Sunday through Thursday will be rather similar across Colorado.
Nighttime lows will be cold enough for snowmaking at most mountains, while the daytime will be mostly sunny, dry, and likely a bit too warm for snowmaking with highs in the upper 30s to mid-40s.
While I am not an expert in mountain operations, my guess is that with snowmaking only occurring at night, we will not see a lot more terrain open during this week.
Chances for snow through Thursday are slim. There is a chance for a coating of new snow on Sunday night in the southern mountains, and also on Wednesday in the far northern mountains. Both of these two systems will be very weak.
Extended Forecast
In yesterday's post, I wrote that we would need to get lucky to get snow over the next 5-10 days. The dominant storm track will be to our north, and perhaps with some luck, a storm or two could drop far enough south to hit Colorado.
It looks like we will get lucky as a storm should drop south into Colorado from Thursday night through Friday night.
The average of many versions of the American and Canadian models show 1-6 inches of snow for the central and northern mountains from Thursday night through Friday night.
And the average of 51 versions of the European model, shown by the green bar at the bottom of the graphic below, forecasts about 5 inches in the northern mountains from Thursday night through Friday night.
Thus, a good first guess is 3-6 inches in the central and northern mountains from Thursday night through Friday night, with the deeper accumulations favoring the northern mountains.
If you're looking to slide on fresh snow, Friday and perhaps Saturday morning is your next chance.
Following the storm on Friday, I do not know when we'll see more natural snow. There's a chance we'll get clipped by another storm next weekend, or the storm track could again retreat to our north. I'll keep you posted.
Thanks for reading!
JOEL GRATZ
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- Bristol Brewing, 1604 S Cascade Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80905
- My talk will start at 630pm
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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