Wednesday will be partly to mostly cloudy and dry with highs in the 30s. Then the fun begins as we'll see two storms before Christmas day.

The first storm will bring snow from late Wednesday night through Thursday night. This storm is moderately strong, though the wind direction will not blow from the northwest for most of the storm, and that means that our snow totals will likely stay in the 2-4 inch range (a wind from the northwest is most favorable for snowfall at Copper). There is a chance that we'll get more snow than this if we get lucky and few stronger cells happen to track over Copper, or if flow from the northwest kicks in earlier on Thursday afternoon or evening. When to ski the best snow: Between Thursday midday and closing time, and also on Friday morning first chair.

The first half of Friday should be dry and at least partly sunny with highs in the teens.

Then the second storm will bring snow from late Friday night or early Saturday morning through Sunday morning. It now appears that this storm will track more favorably for Copper, and the wind will blow from the west and northwest direction (good), so I am optimistic that we'll see 3-6 inches by Sunday. When to ski the best snow: Between Saturday midday and closing time, and also on Sunday morning first chair.

Another bit of good news is that the temperature on Sunday and Monday will not get as cold as I feared. Lows will likely be near 0F, though highs will be more comfortable, in the teens.

I think Christmas Day will be dry, then we'll have a chance for a storm or two between about December 26-30.

Thanks for reading and check back Thursday morning for an update!

JOEL GRATZ, Meteorologist at OpenSnow.com