Thursday was a beautiful and warm day with sunny skies and highs in the 30s and 40s. The snow surface became soft and moist in spots, especially at lower elevations and south-facing aspects.

On Friday, a pretty strong storm will move over Colorado, but the storm will have little moisture. This means that we should see snow, but snow amounts will be light. There is a lot of uncertainty in the snow forecast, but that uncertainty exists at the very low end of the snowfall scale, somewhere between a coating to a few inches. Hopefully, a favorable wind from the northwest and north-northwest will allow us to wind up on the higher side of the range, but I have low confidence in this. Aside from the potential snow, the main story will be colder temperatures which will generally stay in the teens all day. The combination of warm temperatures on Thursday followed by colder temperatures on Friday could make the snow surface crunchy on Friday, at least for areas that softened a lot on Thursday and weren't groomed on Thursday night.

For the holiday weekend of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, we'll see sunny skies with high temperatures in the 20s. Snow conditions will be fine – our base is in good shape, most terrain is open, and the cool temperatures should keep the snow surface firm.

Our next chance for snow will be sometime between Wednesday, January 19, and Saturday, January 22. During this time, one or two storms could brush Colorado as they pass by to our north and east. We will NOT be in a favorable weather pattern for significant snow, but perhaps we'll get lucky and see at least some flakes during these days.

Thanks for reading and please 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:
* 4” Saturday (Jan 8)

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

Snowpack compared to the 30-year average:
* 105%