24 inches of snow could fall in 24 hours on the Colorado mountain range

While most of December has been fairly dry around Colorado, it looks like that trend will be reversed during the last week of the year.

National Weather Service mapping shows that up to 18 inches of snow could hit the Park Range, located east of Steamboat, by Friday morning. 5 in the morning. to 24 inches.

While most of the state won’t get much snow over the next 24 hours, it looks like next week’s wintry weather could add some fresh powder to the slopes around the state. OpenSnow’s Joel Gratz predicts double-digit totals for most of the state’s resorts over the next five days.

Winter skiing enthusiasts around the state are likely hopeful that this late-year snowfall will help turn the season around. While statewide snowpack was about 138 percent of normal in late November, that number has since dropped to just 84 percent compared to what is typical on Dec. 26. One of the biggest gaps between normal and current snowpack is found in the Steamboat Springs area, with that river basin at only 75 percent of what is typical for this time of year. Steamboat Resort is reporting a total of 73 inches of snow so far this season, far behind the many resorts that have already passed the 100-inch benchmark. Big snow this week would be huge for the site, with only 59 percent of the resort’s terrain open at last report.

Find additional forecast information related to this weather at the National Weather Service website.