YOUR AD HERE »

Breckenridge, Copper, Keystone ski resorts smash March records for snowfall

Skiers cross the Wellington Road on Wednesday, March 13, in Breckenridge.
Hugh Carey / hcarey@summitdaily.com

This past March will go down in the record books for Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, Breckenridge Ski Resort, Copper Mountain Resort and Keystone Resort, which all received more March snowfall than ever before.

At Breckenridge, spokeswoman Sara Lococo said March’s 111 total inches surpassed the previous high of 98 inches that Breckenridge received in March 2001. That’s 13.3 percent more snow than March 2001. The 111 inches also makes March 2019 the third snowiest month on record at Breckenridge and the snowiest month outside of a pair of Januarys. The highest monthly snowfall total on record for the resort was 120 inches in January 2014, followed by 112 inches in January 1996.

At Copper Mountain, spokeswoman Taylor Prather said March 2019’s 98 inches of snow was just about 14 percent more snowfall than Copper’s previous March high, the 86 inches the resort received in March 2001. This past month also ranks as the fourth snowiest month on record since the resort opened in 1972. It’s also the second snowiest month of this past decade.



At Keystone, March’s 94 inches of snow was just under 19 percent more snow than the previous record March: March 2011’s 79 inches of snow. March 2019 comes in as the third snowiest month on record at Keystone, only behind the 128 inches received in December 1983 and the 127 inches that fell in January 1996.

And up at the Continental Divide, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area received 82.75 inches this March. Though it was the snowiest month yet this year for the ski area, and though A-Basin’s annual average for March is 51 inches, A-Basin’s all-time record for March snowfall was the 110 inches that fell in March 1982.



A-Basin spokeswoman Katherine Fuller said April is actually, on average, the snowiest month of the year, at 53.4 inches. Fuller clarified that A-Basin’s data goes back to 1978. In that time, Fuller said A-Basin has had multiple 100-plus-inch months, led by December 1983’s 133 inches.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.

Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.

Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.