Snow stake and SNOTEL check-in. Already 7-10" in IPW and RMNP

12/17/24 7:45pm: Snow-stake (and SNOTEL) check-in. Great to see the forecast verifying this evening. Snow is starting to wind down across the north-central mountains but still snowing over the higher terrain and near the Cont. Divide so totals will go up just a little bit more in spots from what I show below. Stoked to see 7-10" across IPW and RMNP with 2-5" across the rest of the local ski areas....as predicted. I just saw that Vail Pass is closed (from Copper to Vail) and Berthoud Pass looks like a mess (with >7" there already).

Here are some notable totals from the SNOTEL (from CAIC snotel aggregator) and ski areas (estimated based on webcams)

Willow Park snotel (north RMNP): 10”
Eldora ski: 9”
University Camp snotel (IPW, just north of Silver Lake): 8”
Sawtooth snotel (IPW: northwest of Brainard Lake): 8”
Bear Lake snotel (RMNP): 8”
Berthoud Summit snotel: 7”
Winter Park ski area: 9”
Niwot snotel (IPW)l: 7”
Long Draw Res snotel (east of Cameron Pass): 7”
Wild Basin snotle (RMNP): 6”
Loveland ski: 5”
Steamboat ski: 4”
Copper ski: 3”
A-Basin ski: 3”
Breck ski: 3”
Vail ski: 2”
Keystone ski: 2”
Beaver Creek ski: 1”

I'll post my snowfall map from last night in the comments so you can compare. Happy with this one as most forecasters weren't calling for much snow from this wave

The images below show current snow-stakes or a combo of before 4pm and current (for Winter Park and Eldora)...

On a side note I think its so silly for ski areas to clear their snow-stakes at 4pm, it often breaks up the snow-event and its hard to see a good 24 hour total (I know it shows the snow overnight, but doesn't coincide well with a 5am report). I think they should all clear their snow-stakes at 5am when they report the snow imo.

Thoughts on the snow? Thoughts on ski areas clearing their snow-stakes at 4pm?