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It's been a lean snow season so far for the entire Upper Colorado River Basin, but weather forecasters say it's still too early to hang up the ski gear.
“There's a lot of snow season yet to go,” National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist Kyle Fredin said. “That area has four solid months of snow coming up. The weather sometimes flips around, and I wouldn't be surprised if (you're) right back to near normal.”
Normal, for the end of December in Breckenridge, would be 64.4 inches of snow, but this season had produced a mere 32.7 inches from September through Wednesday.
The Upper Colorado River Basin as a whole is at only 63 percent of average, year to date.
But with another possible storm system headed Summit County's way next week and several months of winter still to come after that, forecasters are optimistic the 2011/2012 season's snow totals can make a comeback in the new year.
For Breckenridge, March tends to be the snowiest month of the year, and January alone has seen 21.4 inches of new snow on average.
Moist, unstable west-northwesterly weather patterns moving in off the Pacific will bring the best chances heavy snowfall west of the Continental Divide in the coming months, Fredin said.
So far this season, the mountains east of the Divide and even the Front Range have fared better than Summit County in terms of snowfall. Denver's weather reporting station near Denver International Airport had seen 29.5 inches of snow as of Wednesday, ahead of its season-to-date average of 21 inches and on par with Breckenridge's 32.7 inches thus far. Boulder, to the north of Denver and closer to the foothills, has had 53.4 inches so far this season, trouncing both Breckenridge's year-to-date total and its own typical 28.4 inches this time of year.
Summit County's first opportunity to play catch up with both the Front Range and past averages may come after Jan. 1, but until then there is hardly a hint of snow in the forecast.
Breckenridge, Frisco and Dillon are looking at warm, sunny days and partly clear nights through the end of this week.
While it is expected to be breezy — the county is under a high-wind warning through 5 p.m. tonight — through the week, temperatures should remain in the high 30s and low 40s through the end of the week, according to NWS forecasts.
“There's a lot of snow season yet to go,” National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist Kyle Fredin said. “That area has four solid months of snow coming up. The weather sometimes flips around, and I wouldn't be surprised if (you're) right back to near normal.”
Normal, for the end of December in Breckenridge, would be 64.4 inches of snow, but this season had produced a mere 32.7 inches from September through Wednesday.
The Upper Colorado River Basin as a whole is at only 63 percent of average, year to date.
But with another possible storm system headed Summit County's way next week and several months of winter still to come after that, forecasters are optimistic the 2011/2012 season's snow totals can make a comeback in the new year.
For Breckenridge, March tends to be the snowiest month of the year, and January alone has seen 21.4 inches of new snow on average.
Moist, unstable west-northwesterly weather patterns moving in off the Pacific will bring the best chances heavy snowfall west of the Continental Divide in the coming months, Fredin said.
So far this season, the mountains east of the Divide and even the Front Range have fared better than Summit County in terms of snowfall. Denver's weather reporting station near Denver International Airport had seen 29.5 inches of snow as of Wednesday, ahead of its season-to-date average of 21 inches and on par with Breckenridge's 32.7 inches thus far. Boulder, to the north of Denver and closer to the foothills, has had 53.4 inches so far this season, trouncing both Breckenridge's year-to-date total and its own typical 28.4 inches this time of year.
Summit County's first opportunity to play catch up with both the Front Range and past averages may come after Jan. 1, but until then there is hardly a hint of snow in the forecast.
Breckenridge, Frisco and Dillon are looking at warm, sunny days and partly clear nights through the end of this week.
While it is expected to be breezy — the county is under a high-wind warning through 5 p.m. tonight — through the week, temperatures should remain in the high 30s and low 40s through the end of the week, according to NWS forecasts.
