Colorado Daily Snow

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

By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 6 years ago January 20, 2018

Storm on the way

Summary

On Saturday, expect snow to fall mostly in the southern mountains, mostly late in the afternoon. Then on Saturday night, look for a few bands of snow to push across all mountains. On Sunday, you might wake up to snow reports that are not very deep, but the storm will strengthen and we should see additional snow accumulation through the day on Sunday. I am going to stick with my forecast of 5-10 inches as the average for the majority of mountains by the end of Sunday evening. After this storm, we should see mostly dry weather during the beginning of next week (more snow showers in the northern mountains) then the next significant storm should bring snow between Thursday night and Saturday. Another storm is likely around January 31st.

Short Term Forecast

Here are a few things to keep in mind for the storm on Saturday and Sunday.

* Most of the snow on Saturday will fall in the southern part of the southern mountains, and most of this snow will fall late in the afternoon.

* The first part of the storm on Saturday afternoon and Saturday night will bring winds from the south, which are only favorable for Wolf Creek, Purgatory, and Silverton. Other mountains will rely on a few narrow and intense bands of snow to bring accumulations on Saturday night.

* On Sunday morning, the snow reports outside of Wolf Creek, Purgatory, and Silverton might seem disappointing (2-4 inches), but don’t worry as the storm will be strengthening and should keep snow going during Sunday morning and midday.

* Another 2-4+ inches should accumulate during Sunday morning. The storm will be strengthening, which means that there could be upside surprises in a few spots on Sunday. My low-confidence bet for this to happen would be in the northern mountains closer to the divide, around Winter Park and Summit County.

Below is the forecast radar for the storm, starting on Friday night at 5 pm and ending on Monday at 4 am. The time in the image is listed on the top and is given in Zulu time. Think of this as military time and subtract 7 hours to convert to Mountain Standard Time.

If you are reading on our mobile app and cannot see the animated .gif below, click here: http://opsw.co/2EY8MaT

You’ll see all parts of the storm in the image above – the snow in the southern mountains on Saturday afternoon, then the bands on Saturday night, then the steadier and more widespread snow on Sunday morning as the storm strengthens to the east of Colorado.

The summary is that Sunday will likely be the best powder day of the next 5-6 days with 5-10 inches of snow by Sunday afternoon, and you might have leftovers on Monday morning as well.

Extended Forecast

Monday should be dry, then light snow with small accumulations could hit the northern mountains on Monday afternoon through Monday night and Tuesday morning. Otherwise, the beginning and middle of next week will be dry.

The next storm should bring snow to all mountains from next Thursday through Saturday morning. This storm looks similar to the current storm, with an early forecast in the 4-8 inch range.

Following that system, the models show remarkable consistency with dry weather for a few days and then the next storm on January 31st through February 1st.

Here is a graphic showing the likely storm around January 31st.

While we might not see massive two or three-day snow totals from the upcoming storms, it’s nice to have three storms to talk about within a 10-12 day window.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

PS - I am at Kingfisher Heli in British Columbia, Canada with a great group of friends through Monday, and so I might be a bit slower to respond to emails, and my forecasts might be a bit more brief due to the fact that I’ll be out in the pow for most of the day. I will post a full trip report in about a week. Thanks for understanding!

Announcements

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, 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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