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Summit currently has one of the highest snowpack medians in the state. Here’s what type of snow the area will see this week.

Penelope, 13, Olivia, 11 and Quintin, 8, powder ride on Georgia Pass. Summit County is slated to get up to 6 inches of snow by Wednesday morning, Jan. 8, according to the National Weather Service.
Betsy Paiement/Courtesy photo

Summit and Eagle counties are poised to get a consistent dusting of powder nearly everyday this week heading into next weekend, according to National Weather Service meteorologists. 

Meteorologist Zach Hiris said there will be a “fairly active pattern across the mountains” on Monday, Jan. 6, and Tuesday, Jan. 7, which is likely bring a few inches of snow to the slopes. He said “a bunch of weak systems” could follow from Wednesday through Saturday and these are slated to bring a couple more inches.

Summit’s mountains are anticipated see anywhere from 3-6 inches and its valley areas could see 1-3 inches of snow by Wednesday morning, Hiris said. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday could bring an inch or two each, but it will be more sporadic than the snowfall delivered by Monday and Tuesday’s storms, he said. 



“It’s going to be pretty fluffy snow,” he said. “It’s not a whole lot of liquid equivalent with the next couple of rounds of snow, maybe a little bit more moisture as we get to the latter half of the week.”

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the Blue River Basin is currently at 129% of its snowpack median. The United States Department of Agriculture’s interactive Colorado snowpack median map shows the Blue River Basin has one of the highest snowpack medians in the state as of Jan. 5.
The United States Department of Agriculture/ Courtesy illustration

Other forecasts differ slightly from the National Weather Service’s. 



Meteorologist-founded forecasting app OpenSnow is predicting local ski areas will get the following snow accumulations over the next five days: Loveland Ski Area could get 3 inches, Copper Mountain could get 1 inch, Arapahoe Basin could get 2 inches, Breckenridge Ski Resort could get 1 inch, Keystone Ski Resort could get 1 inch, Vail Ski Resort could get 2 inches and Beaver Creek Resort could get 3 inches. 

Hiris said the Blue River Basin is currently at 129% of its snowpack median. 

“For this time of year, we’re in pretty good shape … we’ve been kind of sitting near normal for most of December, into the late December timeframe, but since we’ve had that active pattern, we’ve been steadily growing that that lead,” he said, noting the Blue River Basin’s snowpack is currently above others. 

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the Colorado Headwaters river basin is currently at 104% of its median snowpack, the Eagle area is at 113% of its median snowpack and the Roaring Fork area is at 109%  of its median snowpack. 

While Summit’s current snowpack median nears the top of the list statewide, it comes second to the Pueblo County areas, whose snowpack median is at 217% as of Jan. 5.

As for weather, Hiris said high altitude areas will likely stay in single digits throughout the week and Summit’s valley areas will likely stay in the high teens to low 20’s range. 

He added there shouldn’t be any significant wind this week.

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center placed Summit and Eagle County areas in the “considerable” tier on its avalanche danger scale for Monday, Jan. 6. Considerable is the third tier on the five-tier scale. According to Colorado Avalanche Information Center, below, near and above tree line areas are all in this category for being in “considerable” danger of an avalanche.

After a remotely triggered avalanche on Peak 1 on Jan. 4, the information center told people via a Facebook post “Don’t rely on luck. Understand conditions are dangerous.”


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