Colorado got a taste of winter over the weekend, as snow blanketed most of the state’s high country starting Friday night with another round of significant snow overnight Sunday into Monday.
The moisture was needed, as much of the northern Front Range mountains are under drought conditions amid a statewide dry spell in recent weeks.
It was also welcome news for many of Colorado’s ski resorts, which have been hurting for snow just days or weeks ahead of forecast opening dates in late October and early November.
The big winner was Wolf Creek, the beloved family-owned ski area nestled in the San Juans, which saw 21 inches over the weekend. It announced it would open on Tuesday thanks to the generous snowfall.
Here are the numbers at other Colorado ski spots, according to National Weather Service data:
- Copper Mountain: 11 inches
- Loveland: 10 inches
- Arapahoe Basin: 9 inches
- Breckenridge: 8 inches
- Winter Park: 7.5 inches
- Keystone: 8 inches
- Crested Butte: 4.5 inches
- Granby: 2.5 inches
- Eldora: 1 inch
Vail Mountain hadn’t reported snowfall that was visible on the NWS’s official snowfall map, but the snow stake camera at Mid-Vail showed as much as 12 inches of snow over the course of the weekend, with 10 falling since Sunday and 6 accumulated inches lasting into Monday morning. A CoCoRaHS measuring station in East Vail recorded 4 inches.
Beaver Creek’s snow stake camera appeared to show roughly 7 inches of overnight Sunday into Monday.
⛷️Latest snowfall reports! #COwx pic.twitter.com/T0oiW7jyJi
— NWS Boulder (@NWSBoulder) October 21, 2024
Three inches fell at Floyd Hill, but the measurable snow didn't move any further east than the foothills. The easternmost snowfall report on the NWS map was 1.5 inches in Conifer.