Disclaimer: This is sponsored content. All opinions and views are of Monarch Mountain and does not reflect the same of KOAA.
Colorado ski resorts are seeing base depths decline, but a small storm system this weekend will bring a brief window of fresh snow before a record-breaking heat ridge arrives next week.
Wolf Creek leads the state in season-to-date snowfall with 173 inches. Snowmass and Winter Park are tied for second at 164 inches each.
Base depths have been dropping across many resorts. With a higher March sun angle and a lack of new snow, the majority of resorts have seen their base depths fall by between 2 to 6 inches over the past week - although there are as always exceptions. No resort is trending up, though.
A small amount of new snow is on the way with an incoming front this weekend. Friday will be dry - and breezy to windy (wind in the north mountains, breezy everywhere else). Saturday will be dry during the daytime hours, with snow developing along the Continental Divide after sunset. A second wave of energy arrives from the northwest early Sunday morning (overnight), briefly bringing heavier snow before sporadic flurries linger into Sunday morning. The upper level energy in this situation is relatively robust, but the moisture is lacking. This is largely a 2-4" snow event for the northern mountains and if we're lucky, the I-70 resorts as well.
Skies will remain partly to mostly cloudy for the rest of Sunday, and it will be gusty throughout the day.
Still, cool spring-like temperatures with a bit of new snow offer a better outlook than what is expected the following week. We are tracking a record-busting heat ridge that is likely to send ski resort temperatures into the 50s and even 60s. It's hard to overstate how unusual this heat ridge appears. At multiple levels of the atmosphere, it would represent the warmest ever conditions on record for mid-March — not just in Colorado, but across much of the western U.S.
The long-range outlook from the Climate Prediction Center also calls for drier than normal conditions through late March. The long-range climate models, such as the ECMWF ensemble weekly extended, do show a bit of a signal for (some) snow toward the end of March and into April, but in a best-case scenario, this would potentially bring close to average precipitation through that period following a long period of warmth — not exactly "ideal".
With all of that in mind, I'm planning to hit the slopes this weekend. Hope to see you there.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
__
Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.
