Reminder: This season is starting with a much lower snowpack compared to average and compared to last season, so there are only a handful of trails open at the moment.

On Thursday night into Friday morning, the storm is still to our west and we have seen only clouds and a few flakes, with no real accumulation at mid-mountain.

On Friday, the first half of the day should be mostly or completely dry.

From Friday afternoon through Friday night, the first part of the storm will move over Colorado. The wind direction from the south and southwest will NOT be favorable for a lot of snow, but storm energy tracking over Colorado will likely create narrow bands of intense snow, and a few of these bands could bring a few inches of snow to the mountain. As these bands of intense snow move toward Copper, they are likely to break apart, so we'll be right on the edge of seeing or missing this snowfall.

On Saturday, a cool wind from the west-northwest and northwest should keep snow showers around, and we might eke out a few additional inches, especially from the morning through the early afternoon.

Total snowfall should be in the 2-5 inch range, and there could be some softer turns on the limited terrain on Saturday morning through midday.

Temperatures will be chilly, with 20s on Friday, teens on Saturday and Sunday, and then 20s next week. These cooler temperatures will help keep the natural snow from melting and will allow crews to make snow on most days.

The longer-range forecast is for dry weather from Sunday through Thursday, and then we will have a chance for our next storm sometime in the December 1-3 timeframe. After that, there will likely be additional chances for snow during the first third of December. Our snowpack is unlikely to rise back to average during this time, but we should be going in the right direction, and more terrain should open as well.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ
Meteorologist at OpenSnow.com

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:
* 5” Saturday Night to Monday Night (Nov 18-20)

Terrain
* 5 of 23 lifts
* 8 of 157 trails
* Latest update

Snowpack compared to the 30-year average:
* 66%