Thursday was a tale of two regimes. The morning and midday regime was mostly cloudy, and the afternoon and evening regime was beautifully sunny with a gorgeous sunset. Ah, springtime in the Rockies!

Now on Friday morning, skies are cloudy and the approaching storm is just moving into southern Colorado, so we’ll likely see a few hours of dry weather.

From Friday midday through the afternoon, we will see hit-or-miss snow squalls. Any squall could drop 1-3 inches in an hour, so let’s hope that a few of these squalls happen to hit the mountain and deliver some snow during the afternoon. With warm temperatures early on in this storm, the base area could see some raindrops while it’ll be all snow on most of the mountain.

On Friday late afternoon, we will likely see a brief break in the snow and might even see some sunshine.

Then from Friday evening through Saturday morning, snow will resume and colder air will filter in. We should measure a few additional inches from this weather pattern.

Saturday morning will be the best chance to enjoy the new snow. Groomers and north-facing terrain should be the best bet unless we get lucky and see a high-side surprise, which would be enough to soften the base across more of the mountain.

Following the storm, from Saturday midday through next Wednesday (March 18th), we should see mostly dry weather with just a few random showers possible.

Then most models agree that a colder and strong storm will bring snow back to Colorado from Wednesday night through Friday. It’s likely that we will see powder on Thursday and/or Friday (March 19-20).

Thanks for reading and check back each morning for daily updates!

JOEL GRATZ
Meteorologist at OpenSnow.com
Contact me: [email protected]

Snow conditions as of Friday morning

New snow mid-mountain:
* 0” (24 hours Thursday 500am to Friday 500am)
* 0” (Overnight Thursday 400pm to Friday 500am)

Last snowfall:
* 3” from Tuesday to Thursday (Mar 10-12)

Terrain
* 23 of 23 lifts
* 148 of 149 trails
* Latest update

Snowpack compared to the 30-year average:
* 125%