Midweek snowfall set to refresh Colorado’s mountains amid prolonged dry period

Light snowfall is slated to hit the Colorado High Country on Tuesday, briefly interrupting a multi-day dry period heading into the week of Christmas. 

Snow is expected to begin falling in the afternoon, providing between 1 and 3 inches of accumulation along the Interstate 70 corridor “with a few lucky spots maybe squeezing out 3-5 inches,” wrote OpenSnow meteorologist Sam Collentine in a blog post Monday. 

For skiers and riders, “This could provide soft turns for last chair on Tuesday and potentially for first chair on Wednesday,” Collentine wrote. “The groomers should also be nice and crispy on Wednesday morning so keep your schedules open.”

Conditions will dry out for the remainder of the week, with the next best chance of snowfall being Monday, Dec. 23. Stronger storms could be possible around Christmas Day and into the final days of December, according to Collentine.

The state’s snowpack, which surged in November amid an onslaught of intense winter storms, has since dipped below normal. Snowpack is tracked by looking at the snow-water equivalent, a measurement that shows how much liquid water is held within the state’s snowfields. 

As of Monday, statewide snowpack levels sat at 96% of the 30-year-median, according to data from the Natural Resources Conservation Service.