Snow reports and a look at the wind forecast

12/18/24 8:30am: Morning. Some official snow reports from the ski areas and CoCoRaHS below. And a mention about the strong wind expected over the Front Range mountains this afternoon into tomorrow.

In terms of snow reports, the big mystery is why Eldora reported just 6" when the snow-stake clearly showed 9" total lol (maybe the wind, I don't know its strange, I looped it again to check). And why did Breck report 0" when they clearly had 3" on the snow-stake (someone is not on top of things this morning lol).

Ski Area 24hr reports:

Eldora: 8-9” via snow stake (they reported 6” for some reason)
Winter Park: 7”
Loveland: 5”
Steamboat: 4”
A-Basin: 3”
Breck: 3” (they reported 0" for some reason)
Copper: 3”
Vail: 2”
Keystone: 2”
Ski Cooper: 2”
Granby Ranch: 2”
Aspen Mtn: 1”
Snowmass: 1”

CoCoRaHS Reports 24hr reports:

Kremmling 10.0 NW: 5.5”
Tabernash 2.7 NW: 3.7”
Dumont 2.0 WNW: 2.7”
Nederland 0.4 WNW: 2.4”
Steamboat Springs 1.1 E: 2.2”
Idaho Springs 4.7 SSE: 1.7”
Allenspark 2.3 N: 1.6”
Livermore 20.3 NW: 1.2”
Vail 2.6 E: 1.1”
Estes Park 1.8 S: 0.7”

Anyway, dry across the state today and turning warmer but the big story will be the strong wind expected over the Front Range mountains and foothills (mostly along/east of the Cont. Divide) from about 12pm today through 6am Thursday, strongest tonight: westerly wind-gusts of 40-70mph in spots (especially above 10k ft). Less wind west of the Cont. Divide (20-40mph gusts). Wind dies down by tomorrow, especially west.

For Den/Bou and the front-range urban corridor not too windy initially today, then turning breezy this afternoon 3pm-11pm: westerly wind-gusts of 15-35mph, strongest near foothills and on Palmer Divide. Otherwise a big warm up coming with temps getting back into the low 60s for Thu-Mon (12/19 to 12/23).

Relatively warm and dry in the mountains as well from Thu to Sun. Next batch of snow likely arrives next Mon evening (12/23) with some light snow from Mon night into Tue mid day (12/24): 2-4" likely but details are uncertain.

First image shows 48hr observed snowfall from NOHRSC (interpolated so can be off in spots, but gives general idea of where the snow fell). Second image shows 24hr CoCoRaHS reports via their map over northern CO. Third image is forecast slide from Den/Bou NWS office that describes the strong wind expected over the Front Range mountains today into tomorrow. Fourth image loop shows forecast wind-gusts over the next 48hrs (5am this morning to 5am Fri) from latest HRRR.