Thursday was gorgeous with sunny skies during most of the daylight hours and high temperatures in the upper teens to low-20s which was a notable warm-up compared to Wednesday’s very cold readings.

Friday and Saturday will bring continued beautiful weather with mostly sunny skies each day and temperatures topping out in the upper 20s to mid-30s.

Then two storms will bring snow for nearly four days lasting from Saturday night through Wednesday evening and accumulations should be significant.

On Saturday night through Sunday, expect a few inches of snow as storm energy clips northern Colorado. Sunday could be sneaky soft, or at least, it’ll be good to see flakes return.

From Sunday night through Monday afternoon, a stronger storm will move into Colorado but the winds will be from an unfavorable southwest direction so snowfall could be spotty, anything from just light amounts to times of more intense showers.

From Monday night through Tuesday will be our best chance for periods of intense snow as the storm moves across Colorado.

Then from Tuesday night through Wednesday is the wildcard as wrap-around energy and a favorable wind direction could combine with decent moisture to keep snow showers going.

Total snowfall from Saturday night through Wednesday should total in the double-digits and the softest snow should be on Tuesday and Wednesday. I'll fine-tune amounts during the next few days.

The longer-range forecast looks good with multiple storms during the first week of 2021.

We could see systems move through around December 31 to January 1, then again on January 2-3, and again around January 6-7.

If all of these storms track favorably, we could see significant snowfall and very fun conditions.

Merry Christmas!

Thanks for reading and check back each morning for daily updates!

JOEL GRATZ
Meteorologist at OpenSnow.com

Snow conditions as of Friday morning

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

Last snowfall:
* 5” Tuesday Night to Wednesday (Dec 22-23)

Terrain
* 20 of 23 lifts
* 95 of 166 trails
* Latest update

Snowpack compared to the 30-year average:
* 90%