Weather
Colorado’s mountains shift from a warm, mostly dry start to two rounds of light to moderate snow through Wednesday, then into a lower-confidence but potentially more active stretch late week into next weekend. The first wave arrives late Saturday night through Sunday with modest accumulations focused on northern and central mountains, while southern mountains stay lighter. A second round Tuesday into early Wednesday is better organized and should bring the steadiest mountain snow of the confidence window. Early storms run relatively warm with higher snow levels and denser snow at lower elevations, then profiles cool and snow quality gradually improves after midweek.
From late Saturday night through Sunday, guidance is converging on timing and warmer snow levels but diverging on intensity and ridge-top wind magnitude, with the most consistent signal for light snowfall in the northern and central ranges and limited coverage farther south. Most mountains should stay in the low single digits for accumulation during this first push, with favored terrain near the Continental Divide able to approach around 4 inches by Sunday evening. Snow levels during active snowfall sit mostly around 8,000 feet to 9,500 feet, so lower mountain elevations can mix with rain at times while upper mountain terrain stays snow. Snow quality looks mixed, with SLRs mostly around 8 to 12, meaning denser to fair snow, while brief cooler pockets trend closer to moderate quality. Wind impacts are modest overall, though exposed ridges can still see gusts around 25 mph to 35 mph Sunday.
Monday trends milder again before a broader Tuesday to early Wednesday storm, and guidance is fairly well aligned on that timing, lower snow levels, and generally manageable winds even as snowfall intensity remains spread out. This second wave brings the best overlap of lift and moisture in the near term, with many mountains landing near 4 inches and favored Divide zones pushing closer to 7 inches where bands hold longer into Wednesday morning. Snow levels generally lower into about 6,500 feet to 8,500 feet while snow is falling, reducing rain-mix risk versus Sunday. Snow quality also improves into mostly moderate territory, with many areas around 10 to 14 SLR by Tuesday night. Wind impacts stay manageable for most terrain, but periodic ridge gusts near 20 mph to 30 mph can still affect exposed lifts during heavier bursts.
From Thursday through the weekend, guidance diverges more on timing, intensity, snow-level depth, and wind magnitude, but the broad signal still favors periodic mountain snowfall and a gradual shift to cooler, generally better snow quality than the Sunday system. A late-week wave from Thursday into Saturday has a realistic conservative floor near 4 inches for many mountains, with potential to reach around 12 inches where bands persist longest. After that, Sunday into Tuesday is increasingly speculative, with a wetter camp showing another stronger round while lower-end solutions keep totals more limited and uneven. A practical early read for that later window is around 6 inches in lower-end outcomes and up toward 18 inches in favored terrain if the wetter scenario verifies, but confidence is lower and many spots could finish below that upper bound. The broader early March pattern still leans toward above-normal precipitation chances for Colorado, supporting continued storm opportunities beyond the confidence window.
Resort Forecast Totals (Sun Mar 01 – Wed Mar 04)
- Loveland – 5″-8″
- Arapahoe Basin – 5″-7″
- Winter Park – 4″-7″
- Vail – 4″-6″
- Steamboat – 4″-5″
- Snowmass – 3″-5″
- Copper Mountain – 3″-5″
- Beaver Creek – 3″-5″
- Breckenridge – 3″-4″
- Crested Butte – 2″-3″
- Telluride – 1″-2″
- Monarch – 1″-2″
- Wolf Creek – 0″-1″
