Tuesday morning is cloudy, though we should see clouds dissipate and the sun return by midday with the temperature rising into the 20s.

Wednesday and Thursday will also be dry with high temperatures in the 20s and a mix of clouds and sunshine.

On Friday, there is a low chance that we’ll see a few snowflakes. Most models do not show this, though a few models do push snow showers over northern Colorado. Even if we do see snow, accumulations look low.

From Friday night through Sunday night, a strong storm will bring snow to Colorado. While that sounds like good news, and it is better than no snow, the wind direction during most of the storm will be from the southwest which is NOT favorable for intense snowfall and deep totals for us. That’s a bummer, but, there is a silver lining. Since the jet stream will be near or over Colorado, and since the jet stream can create narrow bands of intense snow that can overwhelm a bad wind direction, we may wind up with decent snow totals if a little bit of luck is on our side.

The best chance for snow will be from Saturday morning through Sunday evening. If we miss any narrow bands of snow, accumulations could be just a few inches. If any intense bands of snow hit, then we could get accumulations into the double digits. Let’s hope it is the latter scenario.

There might be a short break in the snow on Monday, January 25th. Then another storm should offer snow around Tuesday, January 26th. Like the weekend system, this storm will mostly bring an unfavorable wind direction from the southwest, but it could still result in respectable snow totals.

Looking far ahead, the final few days of January will likely trend toward dry weather. Then a stormier weather pattern could return starting around February 2-4.

JOEL GRATZ
Meteorologist at OpenSnow.com

Snow conditions as of Tuesday morning

New snow mid-mountain:
* 0” (24 hours Monday 500am to Tuesday 500am)
* 0” (Overnight Monday 400pm to Tuesday 500am)

New snow summit:
* 0” (24 hours Monday 500am to Tuesday 500am)
* 0” (Overnight Monday 400pm to Tuesday 500am)

Last snowfall:
* 1” Sunday Night to Monday (Jan 17-18)

Terrain
* 15 of 18 lifts
* 163 of 169 trails
* Latest update

Snowpack compared to the 30-year average:
* 63%