Liz Copan / ecopan@summitdaily.com
FRISCO — Ski season is starting off with a bang, as a snowstorm that tapered off Monday evening left a bounty of the white stuff on the ground across Summit County, with as much as 10 inches in some places, including Breckenridge Ski Resort.
There is even more on the way. In his daily report for Colorado, OpenSnow meteorologist Joel Gratz said that after a brief dry period Tuesday and Wednesday morning, snow will start falling again at 4 p.m. Wednesday and will continue until sunrise Thursday.
For Summit County’s ski areas, Gratz estimated anywhere from 4-10 or more inches by Thursday. Because of lower temperatures in the morning, Gratz said, Thursday will be the best time for fresh, fluffy powder to play on.
Looking forward, Gratz predicted drier conditions through Sunday morning. After that, it’s a bit of a toss-up. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts model, which Gratz said is often more accurate, predicts another storm to start west of Colorado, bringing multiple days of snow as it gathers energy and unloads moving east.
However, the American Global Forecast System model, which Gratz said is not as reliable as the European model, predicts the storm to form and move north and east of Colorado, dropping little to no snow in the central Rockies while moving on toward the Great Lakes region and Canada.
Gratz said it is still too early to tell definitively what track the storm will take, with more details to come as we get closer to Sunday.
From a longer-term perspective, the December to February 90-day forecast provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center calls for a moderate chance of warmer than normal temperatures for Colorado with an equal chance of average, above-average and below-average precipitation. For the next 30 days, though, the Climate Prediction Center forecasts a 40% to 50% chance of above average precipitation, which could mean a continuing trend of early season snow.