The temperature on Saturday morning is about 0F at the base but +5 to +10F at mid-mountain and the summit, so it’ll be a little warmer up on the hill compared to the base. Partly sunny skies on Saturday should help to raise the temperature to around 20F, which will be noticeably warmer than the last few days. Also, Copper will be running the Tucker snowcat on Saturday, so check that out if you’re never been! Priority seating goes to those with avalanche transceivers.

The dry and partly-to-mostly sunny weather will continue through Sunday and all of next week. Temperatures will increase during the next few days and plateau next week with highs in the 30s.

Our next chance for snow will occur during the weekend of February 4-5th. This storm looks to be of weak-to-moderate strength, so I hope it will give us a nice refresh of powder. After this system, the long-range forecasts into mid-February show that Colorado will be on the edge of the storm track, with a better chance for snow over northern Colorado (where Copper is located). Let’s hope this is the case!

JOEL GRATZ, Meteorologist at OpenSnow.com