It’s about that time! A long 3-day weekend for a lot of folks out there. First off, we hope everyone enjoys their Memorial Day weekend, we want to thank all the service men and women who have lost their lives while serving.
This weekend is shaping up to be beautiful. Plenty of sunshine and much warmer temperatures. Some of our member ski areas will be re-opening for winter operations (looking at you Purgatory and Aspen) and others will be continuing their winter operations (shoutout to Arapahoe Basin) and many others will be opening for summer operations!
Here’s a breakdown of what is happening this weekend:
Granby Ranch opens ‘The Grill’ with drinking and food specials
Steamboat opens for summer operations
Telluride is open for Summer operations and the MountainFilm fest is ongoing through Memorial Day
Purgatory opens for WINTER and summer operations
Aspen opens for WINTER and summer operations
Arapahoe Basin is continuing to be open with a fully open mountain, Festival of the Brewpubs is on Sunday
Powderhorn opens for summer operations
There are plenty of options that you can explore and you’ll have lots of sun to work with. Don’t forget your sunscreen!
Weather:
The weather this weekend for many of our area resorts will be spectacular with highs in the 40s and 50s both days, lows will bottom out in the 20s and 30s so dress in layers or bring some warmer clothes.
Clouds will begin to move into the state for Sunday afternoon ahead of our next moisture producing system. This next system doesn’t look as aggressive as last weeks. I would assume there won’t be any advisories or watches issued but I’ll reassess that as needed.
So as we break down what we will see. Sunday night, clouds increase and an isolated chance for a rain or snow shower will be there. Snow levels will be back to around 10,000 feet (if not slightly higher) so anywhere below that will likely be all rain.
Monday is looking wetter and more cloudy, especially for the second half of the day as many of our ski areas will have some snow around. Accumulations aren’t looking impressive just yet, maybe between 1 and 2 inches.
Tuesday will again be a relatively cloudy day with snow showers at higher elevations and rain showers at lower elevations. Most of the precip that falls will be in the North Central mountains so anywhere from Copper to Steamboat, be on the lookout for possibly heavier snow showers at times, more noticeable as we head to the nighttime hours.
Wednesday will bring a decrease in clouds and precip chances…until the night. Another surge of moisture is looking possible bringing addition snow to most areas (and higher elevations will be prone to more snow).
Thursday and Friday we dry out but not completely. Overall, what we need to note here is that MORE SNOW is on the way. Snow totals will range from 3-10″ with isolated amounts higher than that in the normally favored areas.
I’m thinking that the best accumulations will be in the North-Central mountains with the Southwest corner of the state seeing some decent moisture as well, just not as much.
Regardless, more moisture is on the way so make sure to get out and enjoy the mountain festivities that are available this weekend!
Andy is Colorado Ski Country’s Communication Coordinator. He is also a trained meteorologist with over 6 years of experience working most recently as a broadcast meteorologist. Andy loves Colorado and has been skiing since he was 4 years old. The weather in Colorado fascinates him which makes working for a very weather dependent industry very appealing.
