Now that the massive upslope storm system that has been stalking Colorado this week is only a few hours away, OpenSnow meteorologist Joel Gratz has fine-tuned his predictions for which mountains will get the most snow — and how much they will get.
“For snow amounts, I am lowering (predicted depths) just a bit, but it’s still a lot of snow,” Gratz wrote in his daily report for skiers and riders on Friday. “Most mountains should see 10-25 inches, areas close to the divide and near and north of I-70 should be in the 20- to 35-inch range, and foothills areas east of the divide and near and north of I-70 up to Wyoming should see 30-60 inches.”
Gratz says the deepest snow should be in Rocky Mountain National Park, at the Eldora ski area, Cameron Pass (which is 20 miles west of Fort Collins) and Echo Mountain near Idaho Springs. The next deepest snows are likely to come at Winter Park, Loveland, Arapahoe Basin, Keystone and Breckenridge.
As others have been predicting, Gratz said travel in the foothills west of Denver may not be possible.
“The most intense snow should fall between Saturday late morning through Sunday evening,” Gratz wrote. “The best powder should be on Sunday, all mountains should see significant totals of 10+ inches. The northern foothills could get many feet of snow.”
Another mountain storm is due Tuesday into Wednesday morning with more “pedestrian” snow totals of a few inches to low-end double digits.
