Colorado Daily Snow
By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 13 days ago April 18, 2024
Northern mountain snow on Friday night
Summary
The northern mountains will see some clouds and a few showers on Thursday and Friday. Then on Friday night into Saturday morning, the northern mountains should receive 3-10 inches of new snow with the deepest totals east of the divide on Saturday morning. Following that system, the weather will be mostly dry through the next week with another storm possible around the weekend of April 27-28.
Update
Wednesday
For most mountains, Wednesday and Wednesday night were mostly clear and dry. The northern mountains saw more clouds and a few showers with little accumulation.
Thursday & Friday
Thursday and Friday will bring similar weather as most of Colorado's mountains will be partly sunny and dry while the northern mountains see more clouds and a few showers. East of the divide, it'll be cooler with clouds and a few snowflakes/drizzle as winds from the east lock in moisture and cool temperatures.
Friday Night & Saturday
On Friday night, a stronger wave of energy will deliver the most snow along and just north of the I-70 corridor, mostly near and east of the divide.
West of the divide (Vail, Copper, Breckenridge), maybe we'll see 1-3 inches of snow.
Along the divide (Winter Park, Loveland, A-Basin), maybe we'll see a little more snow, in the 2-5 inch range.
And east of the divide (Cameron Pass, Rocky Mountain National Park, and especially Eldora), snowfall could be 5-10 inches by Saturday morning.
The locations favored for the most snow are nicely highlighted by the multi-model average snow forecast.
Because the snow will form in narrow, intense bands, there may be some upside and downside surprises within the area highlighted (near I-70 and east of the divide).
With the snow falling on Friday night, these northern mountains will start the weekend with surfy, fresh turns on Saturday morning.
Longer Range
Sunday will be dry, mostly sunny, and warm, and then most of next week will be dry and warm with a high temperature in the 40s.
Our next chance for cooler temperatures and more snow will be around the weekend of April 27-28, though that's too far away to make it worthwhile to discuss any details.
Description: The graphic above shows 51 versions of the European EPS ensemble model (top) on the y-axis (vertical) and 15 days from left to right on the x-axis (horizontal). Each colored rectangle shows a chance for precipitation, with grey equaling little precipitation, green equaling light precipitation, and blues and oranges showing significant precipitation. The more the colors are aligned vertically, the higher the confidence in the forecast.
My next update will be Friday morning, and I'll post again on Saturday morning and Monday morning. Then my final post for the season will be on Wednesday, April 24 – yes, there will be more snow after the 24th, but as the active winter weather season winds down, so will I:-).
Thanks for reading!
Joel Gratz
Announcements
Summer Weather: How To Use OpenSnow
As the snow begins to melt and summer conditions quickly take over, remember that you can use OpenSnow as your go-to weather app during the non-winter months.
Get started by going to...
Switch to using your "Summer" favorites list, check the "Weather" tab on both the Favorites screen and any location screen, and avoid poor air quality & incoming storms with our summer-focused map layers in the OpenSnow app.
You can also view the hourly forecast for the next 10 days for any location on Earth in OpenSnow.
- Go to the "Maps" tab.
- Tap anywhere or search for a city.
- Tap "View Forecast".
View → Summer Forecasts
Geography Key
Northern Mountains
Steamboat, Granby, Beaver Creek, Vail, Ski Cooper, Copper, Breckenridge, Keystone, Loveland, Arapahoe Basin, Winter Park, Berthoud Pass, Eldora, Rocky Mountain National Park, Cameron Pass
Along the Divide
Loveland, Arapahoe Basin, Winter Park, Berthoud Pass
East of the Divide
Eldora, Echo, Rocky Mountain National Park, Cameron Pass
Central Mountains
Aspen, Snowmass, Sunlight, Monarch, Crested Butte, Irwin, Powderhorn
Southern Mountains
Telluride, Silverton – north side of the southern mountains | Purgatory, Wolf Creek – south side of the southern mountains