On Saturday morning, the sun is shining.

Sunny skies and temperatures in the 30s on Saturday will be swapped for cloudy and snowy skies as a storm moves over Colorado starting on Saturday afternoon.

The next storm will bring waves of snow from Saturday afternoon through Monday night. Because this is a complex storm, moving through in multiple pieces, the chances for something to 'go wrong' with the forecast are pretty high, so I think it is wise to keep expectations low, even though the positive factors of a lot of moisture and a long-duration event could combine to create higher snow totals.

The first part of the storm should bring a few hours of flakes on Saturday afternoon, the second part of the storm might bring a period of steadier snow on Sunday afternoon, and the third part of the storm on Monday during the day could deliver a bonus amount of fluffy snowfall with a favorable wind direction from the north-northwest. It's the snowfall on Monday that could put us (well) above the 3-6 inch total snow forecast.

That said, I think 3-6 inches is a reasonable average forecast for this system, though if we see a few stronger cells, maybe we could bump that up to 4-8 inches, and if Monday's snowfall comes in stronger than expected, perhaps we'll wind up just above the high end of this range.

Temperatures on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday will be in the 20s.

This combination of natural snow and temperatures favorable for snowmaking could allow the operations team to open a little more terrain in advance of Thanksgiving.

In the longer range, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday will be dry with temperatures warming a bit each day from the upper 20s to the mid-30s. Then the next storm will bring snow from Friday, November 24 through at least Saturday, November 25. This could be another storm with 'moderate' snow totals, and we'll need to wait a few days to figure out the details.

After that, from about November 26 to December 3, there could be storminess hanging around Colorado, so we might luck out and see additional snowfall heading into early December.

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ
Meteorologist at OpenSnow.com

Snow conditions as of Saturday morning

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

Last snowfall:
* 1” Thursday (Nov 16)

Terrain
* 6 of 24 lifts
* 6 of 171 trails
* Latest update

Snowpack compared to the 30-year average:
* 69%