Snow totals from this last storm and a look at the arctic air expected by Fri/Sat

01/12/25 10am: Morning, happy Sunday! I'm getting ready to head out to New Orleans soon but wanted to put out one last post: First to look at some final snow totals from this last storm and to mention the potential for a very cold blast of acrtic air that is forecast to impact the state next weekend: mostly from 9pm Fri to 12pm Mon (01/17 to 01/20). But first some notable snow total below.

48hr snow totals from the ski areas (almost 2 ft at the top of Steamboat, wow!)

Steamboat: 20”
Vail: 14”
Breckenridge: 11”
Aspen Highlands: 11”
Copper: 11”
Silverton: 11”
Beaver Creek: 10”
Aspen Mtn: 8”
Snowmass: 8”
Sunlight: 8”
Monarch: 8”
Loveland: 6”
A-Basin: 6”
Winter Park: 6”
Keystone: 5”
Crested Butte: 4”
Eldora: 3”
Telluride: 2”
Granby Ranch: 2”
Powderhorn: 2”
Wolf Creek: 1”

Also some decent snow over southern CO as expected. Here are some notable 24hr reports from CoCoRaHS:

Ouray .23 NNW: 6.3"
Pueblo 6.3 SSW: 5.7"
Walsenburg 8.7 W: 5.6"
Pueblo West 3.7 NNE: 5.0"
Colorado City 1.6 W: 4.5"
Rye 11.2 E: 4.5"
Glenwood Springs 5.9 S: 4.5"
Vail 0.9 WNW: 3.7"
Frisco 0.5 N: 3.0"
Canon City 4.2 E: 1.0"

For the rest of today just a few snow showers over the northern mountains 12pm-5pm, mostly north of I-70 (northern RMNP, Cameron Pass areas): 1-3", otherwise Trace-2" at some of the ski areas.

A few light snow showers expected over northern / northwest CO on Mon night through Tue night (mostly closer to Steamboat ski areas / Park Range), maybe just some showers over the I-70 ski areas: Trace-3" in spots favoring northwest CO

Then nice weather with a big warm up from Wednesday through Friday am (01/15 to 01/17) ahead of the very cold air. But it will be nice and sunny across the state, light wind for the most part, really warming up in Den/Bou into the 50s especially Wed and Thu.

The leading edge of the very cold air (and some snow) likely pushes into the front-range and northern CO by Friday night after 8pm Fri. Then looks like much colder air and snow returns to both mountains and front-range by Saturday morning (01/18).

Latest 12z GFS (and Euro to some degree) shows a shot of moderate / heavy snow for parts of the front-range including Den/Bou from about 8pm Fri through 8pm Sat (heaviest early Sat morning): could be > 6" for parts of Den/Bou but uncertainty is high.

Also looks like a good shot of snow for the north-central mountains from about 6pm Fri through 6pm Sat, likely a good 5-10" for the ski areas and also turning much colder.

But the coldest air is slated to come in behind the Sat storm system with very cold air likely from Sat night into Sun, through the day Sun into Mon....Looks like high temps for Den/Bou could be between 5-10 degs with low temps by Mon am falling to around -10 to -20 degF (if the forecast pans out).

Also looks very cold for the mountains as well Sun and Mon with high temps also only in the single digits to teens with lows well below zero by Sun, Mon and Tue (01/19 to 01/21).

I'll be in New Orleans through Thu then going straight to LA for a family wedding (if its still happening) form Thu to Mon, coming back Mon (01/20)...right during the end of the arctic outbreak.

Thomas will be filling in for me starting this afternoon...so you know he is going to bring in some wild weather while I'm gone (I've been missing these arctic outbreaks lately lol)

First image shows forecast surface temps for next Sun (01/19) at 8am in the morning, showing single digits. Second image shows 72hr observed snowfall from NOHRSC (interpolated so can be off in spots, but generally accurate). Image 3 shows the Steamboat Powdercam (top of the ski area) early this morning. Fourth image shows top 24hr snow reports from CoCoRaHS.