While I thought we would receive more snow on Wednesday night, the most intense snow stayed about 30 miles north of the resort, dropping 8+ inches closer to the Wyoming border. At Steamboat, we picked up about 2 inches Wednesday night through Thursday at 530 am.

The good news is that the intense snow that was just to our north on Wednesday night has shifted south and as of 6 am on Thursday, snow is falling on Steamboat at the rate of 1+ inches per hour. Expect this intense snowfall to continue through most of the morning as multiple atmospheric factors are combining (cold front at the surface, jet stream overhead, a wind from the west, cooling temperatures). My forecast is for 4-8 additional inches to accumulate during the day, and we might see more than that if all of these factors come together just right. In any case, Thursday is a powder day and the snow will get deeper and softer through the day, so get out and enjoy!

We might see a few inches accumulate after lifts close on Thursday afternoon and before about Thursday at midnight, so on Friday morning first chair, you’ll likely find soft leftover powder from Thursday with perhaps a sprinkling of fresh flakes on top.

Friday should be dry and sunny, then a weak system could bring a dusting to an inch on Friday night. After that, Saturday and Sunday should be dry and mostly sunny.

The next storm will bring snow to Colorado between Sunday night and Tuesday morning. The most intense snow might fall on Monday, or perhaps Monday evening – I’m not sure. For now, keep your eye on possible powder on Monday or Tuesday morning, and also stay tuned for more details about this storm is it might affect your end-of-President’s-weekend travel plans.

In the longer range, the active weather pattern that we’ve seen should continue through at least early March, so there will be more storms heading our way.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for an update each morning!

JOEL GRATZ, Meteorologist at OpenSnow.com