Snowfall map for the Tue/Wed storm system

03/17/25 8am: Morning from Silverthorne (its the first day of JeffCo Spring break so I"m skiing with the girls just today before heading back). Busy morning, but I made a snowfall map for you last night and adjusted just a bit on latest model data. So my snowfall map below for the next storm system slated to impact the state from mid-day tomorrow through Wed evening. Models show a disorganized trough so uncertainty is high again with this one, but best guess below. I'll let the maps mostly speak for themselves.

For the north-central and south-central mountains snow moves into western / southwest CO after 8am tomorrow morning. Main event for the north-central mountains / I-70 mountain corridor will be from 10am Tue to 6pm Wed with heaviest snow late Tue night into early Wed morning. Generally 6-12" for the ski areas with highest amounts west of Vail Pass (Vail, BC, Aspen, Flat Tops and Steamboat will be favored locally).

Looks like some heavy snow for parts of the Elks and Western San Juans as well with a good 8-20" expected in spots down there.

For Den/Bou and the front-range, once again looking like a nothing-burger with models showing the main mid-level to surface low setting up too far north and hence a bunch of westerly downslope flow behind the trough....but a cold-front and some rain/snow showers. Best chances will be from 6pm Tue through 6am Wed am (likely overnight is best chance) for some rain/snow. Best chances for accumulating snow will be south and east of Denver, along the Palmer Divide and foothills west/southwest of Denver: 1-3" in few of those areas, otherwise 0-2" for the urban corridor (best chances from Den south).

In terms of wind: lots of wind with this storm system: For today some strong winds over much of the north-central mountains / front-range mountains from 10am-10pm: westerly wind-gusts of 30-60 mph, strongest along/east of the Cont. Divide.

Then for tomorrow strong winds for both the central mountains and front-range from about 9am Tue through 12am Wed, strongest Tue afternoon: In the mountains west / northwest wind-gusts of 40-80 mph (strongest over Front Range mountains). For Den/Bou: northwesterly wind-gusts of 30-60mph...strongest wind will shift to the eastern plains after 12pm Tue into Wed.

First image is my total snowfall map through 6pm Wed. Image 2 shows the upper-level through at 6pm Tue. Images 3 and 4 compare forecast total snowfall from now through 6am Thu from latest ECMWF and GFS models, take amounts with grain of salt. I'll have more updates later.