Colorado Weather: New Snow Suddenly Becomes Scarce In The Mountains
DENVER (CBS4) - After more than two feet of snow in just a couple of weeks in October, all Colorado mountain areas have been dry so far this month. While cold fronts have moved through the state, they have been too shallow to bring snow to the high country.
The above normal snowfall last month has kept snowpack numbers healthy for mountain areas along and north of Interstate 70. In fact, the Colorado River basin is 176% of average for the first week in November. But farther south the situation is worsening especially in the San Juan mountains where snowpack is a grim 40% of normal for early November.
A year ago, snowpack numbers were consistently strong throughout the entire state.
So while snowfall has been good so far this season in many mountain areas, the southern mountains need at least one big storm to catch up. The next chance for snow anywhere in the state will be Sunday night into Veterans Day on Monday. But at this time it appears any accumulation will be minor including in the mountains. And unfortunately the San Juan mountains may miss out completely.
Breckenridge and Copper Mountain will both open for the season on Friday while Vail Mountain is set to open next Friday (Nov. 15). The next ski area scheduled to open in the southwest region of Colorado will be Purgatory on November 23.
