I know, I know - this is getting old. Sunshine and skiing is never a bad thing, but c'mon, it's time for more snow, right? Well, we're in a bit of luck with the next storm coming on Saturday night.
While Saturday night's snow will miss the Tahoe resorts, all of the Colorado resorts will see some fresh flakes, mostly from sunset on Saturday through sunrise on Sunday.
As has been the case for the last zillion storms, this one will break off from the main flow and head south and west of Colorado. This is not a favorable storm track for heavy snow along I-70 because the winds will swing around and blow from the north and northeast. The best wind direction for Vail's I-70 resorts is from the west or northwest. This won't be "the big one" that we're looking for, but we'll take it. You can see the precipitation forecast for Saturday night as the top image.
If you'd like to ski the softest snow of the next seven days, get up early on Sunday morning and hit the slopes. I can't guarantee deep powder, but I do think first tracks on Sunday will be soft and enjoyable under clearing skies and light winds. The Vail webcam still shows a decent amount of snow at higher elevations.
And finally, what's the long range forecast? It still looks dry through most of next week, though there could be changes toward the middle of January. That's over 10 days away, though, so no use in getting too excited just yet. Let's see what happens.
Enjoy your time on the hill!
5-day snow forecast for Thursday (01/05) through Monday (01/09):
A-Basin: 1-3 inches
Beaver Creek: 1-4 inches
Breckenridge: 1-4 inches
Keystone: 1-4 inches
Vail: 1-4 inches
Heavenly and Northstar: 0 inches
Meteorologist Joel Gratz is the creator of opensnow.com and is based in Boulder, Colo.