Sunday was sunny, with a high temperature in the mid-30s and wind gusts in the 50mph range at the summit. These windy conditions formed as the next storm was moving toward Winter Park.

Now early on Monday morning, clouds are moving in from the southwest with temperatures in the 20-25F range.

Monday will be a stormy day but I have low confidence in snow amounts. The atmosphere will produce narrow lines and small cells of intense snowfall, but these will be hit-or-miss. If a few of these hit Winter Park, we could get 3-6 inches in just a few hours. If these miss Winter Park, the day could be cloudy, windy, and offer some snow, but accumulations would be light.

On late Monday afternoon and Monday night, between about 2 pm - 8 pm, the jet stream will move across Colorado and this should create at least a few hours of intense and steady snowfall. Then the snowfall will become more showery again late on Monday night and Tuesday morning.

You will likely find the best powder either on Monday’s last chair (if we get lucky and a few intense storm cells hit on Monday) or more likely on Tuesday’s first chair. Snow accumulation through Tuesday morning should be in the 6-12 inch range, with higher-end snowfall if we get lucky with storm cells hitting on Monday, and lower-end snowfall if we do not get lucky.

Tuesday’s weather will offer snow showers with a few inches of accumulation. We'll also see very cold temperatures which will stay in the single digits through the day. While we will have lingering moisture and storm energy on Tuesday, which would normally create significant additional snow, the combination of very cold temperatures and a wind direction from the west are not perfect factors for large snow totals at Winter Park, so I am keeping my forecast to just a few inches.

Then Tuesday night and Wednesday will be dry.

From Wednesday night through Sunday, a series of storms of weak to moderate strength should move across Colorado, and Winter Park could measure a few inches of snow during any of these days and/or nights. I do not have much confidence in the details of this snowfall, but multiple days of light snow could add up to soft conditions and deeper-than-expected powder by the weekend … it’s something to watch.

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

JOEL GRATZ, Meteorologist at OpenSnow.com