Weather
This forecast is brought to you by Aspen Snowmass.
A windy, very warm Monday gives way to two spring snow rounds from Tuesday night through Friday, with the best lift-served refresh focused on Snowmass and Aspen Mountain. Confidence is highest from Tuesday evening, March 31, through Friday evening, April 3, when timing is fairly well agreed on, even though amounts vary more with the second wave. The first round starts with high snow levels and denser snow, so lower-mountain coverage is limited at first, then a colder Friday shot brings better snow quality before a drier weekend.
Monday stays dry, warm, and windy, with summit temperatures pushing into the 40s and exposed terrain seeing gusts around 30 to 40 mph before the pattern finally turns. Guidance is well clustered on clouds thickening Tuesday and snow developing Tuesday evening, then continuing in waves into Thursday morning. The models are closer on timing than on intensity, and they also cluster snow levels near 9,500 to 10,000 feet at the start, then lower toward 7,500 to 8,500 feet by Thursday morning. Wind guidance varies for the exact peaks, but the shared signal is a breezy start Tuesday, with speeds easing during the better overnight snowfall. That keeps the first round fairly dense at onset, with SLRs mostly 5 to 12, so Snowmass and Aspen Mountain should pick up the most useful coverage while lower terrain is slower to stack snow.
A colder, cleaner round arrives late Thursday night and lasts through Friday, and this looks like the better snow-quality part of the cycle. Here, the models converge well on timing and on a much lower snow line, crashing toward 4,000 to 5,000 feet while temperatures fall into the teens and 20s on the upper mountain. They diverge more on intensity, with anything from a modest refresher to a solid upper-mountain reset depending on the solution, but all of them put accumulating snow over the open terrain. Snow quality also improves noticeably, with SLRs rising into the 10 to 18 range, and wind guidance is more convergent, generally keeping gusts below the early-week peaks. By Friday evening, Snowmass is near 13 inches for the full stretch, and Aspen Mountain is near 10 inches.
Saturday and Sunday look much quieter, with the models tightly clustered around a dry break, cold mornings, and milder spring afternoons. That should mean firmer starts and softer turns later in the day at the open areas rather than fresh snow, especially as temperatures rebound into the 30s and lower 40s on the mountains. Beyond Sunday, agreement falls off quickly. Most guidance keeps Aspen Snowmass on the warmer and drier side into early next week, while only one solution tries to bring a weak Monday night or Tuesday disturbance, so the realistic expectation after Friday is mostly dry weather with just a low-end chance of a minor refresh.
Resort Forecast Totals (Tue Mar 31 – Fri Apr 03)
- Snowmass – 10″-16″
- Aspen Mountain – 8″-12″
