Two spring systems will flip Colorado from warm, windy conditions into several days of mountain snow, with the San Juans favored most and a colder refresh for many northern and central resorts late Friday into Saturday. Confidence is highest from Tuesday evening through Saturday midday, when guidance is closely aligned on the cooling trend, two rounds of mountain snow, and periodic ridge-top gusts before most solutions turn quieter and milder again later Sunday through next week.
Monday stays warm, dry, and breezy, so expect fast-softening spring snow and exposed gusts of 35-45 mph before conditions turn more active Tuesday evening. Guidance converges well on the first wave arriving Tuesday night and continuing into Thursday morning. Snow levels generally start around 9,000-10,000 feet, then settle toward 7,500-9,000 feet as colder air works in, so lower bases can start wet while higher terrain stacks snow more efficiently. Snow quality looks mostly dense to moderate at first, with SLRs commonly near 8:1-12:1, and the San Juans have the strongest signal for 12″-24″ while most northern and central mountains look closer to 3″-10″ by Thursday morning.
A colder second wave should arrive late Thursday night, peak Friday into early Saturday, and bring the best snow quality of the stretch. Guidance still converges on the timing and colder air, but it diverges more on exact placement and intensity, so confidence is lower on who cashes in most. Snow levels fall well below every base area, generally around 4,000-6,000 feet for much of the event, and SLRs improve into roughly 14:1-18:1 for lighter snow than the midweek round. Steamboat and several central mountains have the clearest signal for another 4″-10″, while the San Juans look more hit-or-miss after their bigger first storm, and ridge gusts can still reach 30-40 mph at times.
After Saturday, the pattern trends quieter and gradually milder through Sunday and much of next week. Guidance diverges on whether a few nuisance snow showers try to hang around early next week, but most solutions favor a drier outcome with lighter winds and a return to classic spring skiing. Expect the best preservation right after the Friday-Saturday refresh, then softer afternoon snow becomes more common again as temperatures recover into the 30s and 40s at many mountain elevations.
Resort Forecast Totals (Tue Mar 31 – Sat Apr 04)
- Wolf Creek – 18″-26″
- Snowmass – 10″-17″
- Telluride – 11″-16″
- Steamboat – 9″-16″
- Beaver Creek – 9″-15″
- Crested Butte – 10″-14″
- Vail – 8″-13″
- Monarch – 8″-13″
- Loveland – 7″-11″
- Arapahoe Basin – 7″-11″
- Winter Park – 6″-11″
- Copper Mountain – 6″-9″
- Breckenridge – 5″-7″