Today, Friday, November 8 is opening day. Woohoo! There will be two lifts and four trails available - not a lot, but lifts are spinning, the base is 161% of average (thanks to this week's storm) and the mountain is looking good.

For the forecast…

Friday will be mostly cloudy with snow showers as the southern storm moves closer. Snowfall will likely be just a few inches, if that, and temperatures will be in the mid-20s.

Friday night will bring more snow as the storm moves even closer and moisture increases. Another few inches of snow will likely accumulate.

Saturday could be a powder day with soft snow during first tracks and more snow falling during the day. Most forecast models show just another few inches of accumulation, the but setup is favorable, with a lot of moisture wrapping around the storm and a wind from the northwest. This setup in the past has produced more snow than any forecast model showed, so Saturday might turn out to be much snowier and deeper than expected. Temperatures will be in the mid-20s.

Looking ahead, Sunday and Monday will be dry and mostly sunny with high temperatures in the 30s, then a fast-moving storm will bring a few inches of snow from Tuesday into Wednesday with temperatures cooling into the 20s. After that, we'll see dry and warm weather next Thursday and Friday, with storms likely returning to Colorado between November 17-21.

My next update will be on Saturday morning.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ
Meteorologist at OpenSnow.com

Snow conditions as of Friday morning

New snow mid-mountain:
* 3” (24 hours Thursday 500am to Friday 500am)
* 0” (Overnight Thursday 500pm to Friday 500am)

Last snowfall:
* 30” Sunday Night to Thursday (November 3-8)

Terrain
* 2 of 23 lifts
* 4 of 156 trails
* Latest update

Snowpack compared to the 30-year average:
* 161%