Colorado gets two ski-relevant snowfall rounds through Saturday, with light-to-moderate refreshes today and a colder, better-quality round Friday into early Saturday. The first wave favors northern and central mountains with mostly small accumulations, then a drier and milder break arrives Wednesday into Thursday before the next trough drops snow levels and brings broader mountain snow late Thursday night through Saturday morning. Most open resorts should pick up a measurable reset, with the strongest in-window totals clustering in north-central terrain around 6″-11″ and lighter southern totals closer to 1″-5″. After Saturday, confidence drops quickly: there is still a signal for another colder storm next week, but guidance spread is large enough that expectations should stay conservative for now.
Through Tuesday night, the model suite converges well on timing but still diverges on intensity and southward reach. Snow is ongoing Tuesday morning and should continue in pulses into Tuesday evening, with snow levels generally around 6,500-8,000 feet while it is snowing, so most ski terrain stays all snow. Totals from this first period remain modest at most areas, with many mountains landing around 1″-3″ and favored northern and central spots closer to 3″-6″. Snow quality is mixed, with SLR commonly around 10-13, which supports dense to moderate new snow rather than ultra-light powder. Wednesday into daylight Thursday trends mostly dry and warmer, with mountain temperatures rebounding into the 20s and 30s and occasional ridge-top gusts roughly 25-40 mph, so expect better groomer and packed-snow conditions than fresh-powder conditions.
Late Thursday night through Saturday morning, the individual models converge on storm timing and colder air but diverge on snowfall intensity, keeping confidence moderate on exact totals and highest confidence on a widespread refresh. Snow levels fall while precipitation is active, generally around 3,500-6,000 feet, and temperatures drop into the teens and lower 20s at many ski elevations by Friday and Friday night. Snow quality should improve versus the Tuesday system, with SLR frequently around 14-18, which supports lighter and drier turns. Most open resorts are favored for roughly 2″-8″ in this second wave, with isolated higher terrain pockets pushing toward 10″-13″ where banding persists longest. Wind impacts look manageable for most of this storm, although periodic gusts around 30-45 mph could affect upper-mountain comfort during the Friday core.
From Saturday afternoon into next week, confidence drops sharply as model spread grows on both storm structure and wind, so this part of the forecast is lower confidence and should be treated as speculative. Sunday and Monday look mainly dry to occasionally unsettled with milder daytime temperatures in the 20s and 30s, then attention turns to a possible Tuesday into Wednesday storm cycle. Several models still show a colder, productive setup that could bring a multi-resort reset, while one major outlier remains much drier and warmer and limits snowfall. A conservative planning range for that later window is 3″-12″ for favored terrain, with some mountains potentially seeing less if the drier solution verifies. Broader pattern guidance still leans active for Colorado beyond this forecast window, so expect additional opportunities but lower precision on timing and exact amounts at this lead time.
Resort Forecast Totals (Tue Mar 03 – Sat Mar 07)
- Winter Park – 7″-11″
- Steamboat – 7″-10″
- Loveland – 6″-9″
- Arapahoe Basin – 6″-9″
- Snowmass – 5″-7″
- Breckenridge – 4″-6″
- Copper Mountain – 4″-6″
- Beaver Creek – 4″-6″
- Vail – 4″-6″
- Telluride – 3″-5″
- Wolf Creek – 3″-5″
- Crested Butte – 2″-3″
- Monarch – 1″-2″