After getting hit with significant storms around Thanksgiving, warranting a travel advisory from the National Weather Service, weather in the High Country settled down this week amid a dayslong dry spell. 

Forecaster Bruno Rodriguez with the National Weather Service in Boulder said Summit’s dry spell can be chalked up to it being anchored between a low pressure system to the east, predominantly over the Great Lakes region, and a high pressure to the west over the Four Corners area.

He said despite the current dry spell, last week’s storms helped boost the area’s snow-water equivalent, which is how much liquid water is trapped in the snowpack. As of Dec. 4, The Blue River Basin was sitting at 140% of the 30-year median for snow-water equivalent, and the statewide snowpack was at 121% of the 30-year median for snow-water equivalent.

Rodriguez said temperatures heading into the weekend will be in the high 40s in Summit’s lower-elevation areas and in the low 30s up on its mountains. 

Sunday is anticipated to bring some moderately heavy winds before a few inches of nighttime snow. 

“Certainly the winds could be strong enough at the higher elevations for periodic closures on some of the lifts at the ski resorts,” he said. 

He added that winds on Monday could be even more intense. 

Weather forecasting app OpenSnow is predicting Summit County’s ski resorts could get 2-4 inches of snow by Monday, Dec. 9. Breckenridge Ski Resort could get 2 inches while Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, Keystone Ski Resort and Loveland Ski Area could all get 3 inches. Copper Mountain could get the most snow Monday with an anticipated 4 inches.   

Rodriguez said Monday’s storm could have 15:1 snow-water ratio, which means every 15 inches of snow would contain about 1 inch of liquid water.

“It doesn’t look nearly as strong as the last one,” he said, noting it will not be significant enough to warrant any traffic issues.