Weather
A midweek storm is the main ski-weather story for Colorado, with the best totals favoring the northern Front Range and Winter Park side of the divide. Confidence is strongest from early Monday, May 4, through Wednesday night, May 6, when mountain snowfall should build from scattered showers into a colder, more organized event. Most ski areas are currently closed, so this is mainly a high-elevation snowpack and backcountry weather update, though Arapahoe Basin and Copper Mountain remain the open-resort points to watch.
Sunday stays mostly mild and quiet before light showers begin reaching the southern and central mountains Sunday night into early Monday. The models converge on this first wave being weak, with only spotty high-elevation snow and snow levels mostly near 9,000-10,000 feet where precipitation occurs. Timing agreement improves by Monday afternoon as moisture expands, but intensity is still uneven, with the southern San Juans and central mountains starting earlier while the northern mountains wait for the colder push Monday night.
Monday night through Wednesday is the core storm period, and the model suite agrees on a colder, broader precipitation shield even though it still spreads out the heaviest snow placement. Snow levels fall from roughly 9,000-10,500 feet early in the storm to around 6,000-7,000 feet by Tuesday night and Wednesday, so snow quality should improve after a denser start. SLRs mostly support dense to moderate snow at first, then fair to locally lighter snow as colder air arrives, with many snowy hours in the 8-14 range and some higher-elevation periods above 14. Ridge winds converge on a gusty but not extreme setup, with frequent 20-35 mph gusts and a few exposed southern and central ridges near 40-45 mph.
By Thursday and Friday, the pattern turns warmer and mostly dry, with only isolated high-terrain flurries possible around the northern Continental Divide. Confidence drops over the weekend and early next week because the models diverge on whether weak disturbances can undercut the rebuilding western ridge. A conservative read is spotty, highest-elevation snow showers rather than a storm, with localized 1-3 inches possible where showers repeat and many areas staying lighter or dry. Snow levels during those showers often sit near or above 9,000 feet, so any new snow would be confined to upper elevations and generally dense.
Resort Forecast Totals (Mon May 04 – Wed May 06)
- Winter Park – 10-15 in
- Arapahoe Basin – 7-10 in
- Loveland – 6-9 in
- Breckenridge – 4-6 in
- Copper Mountain – 4-5 in
- Steamboat – 3-5 in
- Vail – 3-5 in
- Beaver Creek – 3-4 in
- Telluride – 2-3 in
- Wolf Creek – 2-3 in
- Monarch – 2 in
- Snowmass – 1-2 in
- Crested Butte – 1-2 in
