DENVER – The snow was already coming down in bunches in the mountains on Thursday evening, and don't expect it stop for the next couple days.
As we've covered this week, an atmospheric river of moisture from the Pacific Ocean was moving into Colorado and was expected to dump more than a foot of snow across the mountains. Much of that moisture won't reach the Denver area, as we'll only see about two inches of snow through the weekend.
But the snowfall estimates for the mountains were only going up on Thursday. Below are the latest expected snowfall totals through Sunday, from the National Weather Service in Boulder. Note the shades of dark red on the NWS map, indicating up to two feet or more of snow.
Significant snow & blowing snow will produce difficult travel conditions in CO mountains tonight thru much of the weekend. Heavy storm total accumulations due to the long duration of this event, with several mountain areas forecast to get 2+ feet! Travel is discouraged. #COwx pic.twitter.com/nKWaZtFEF4
— NWS Boulder (@NWSBoulder) December 12, 2019
These snowfall estimates are through 5 p.m. Sunday.
Winter Park: 18-24 inches
Vail: 18 inches
Fraser: 18 inches
Silverton: 15 inches
Steamboat Springs: 12 inches
Aspen: 11 inches
Kremmling: 11 inches
Fairplay: 10 inches
Walden: 8 inches
Glenwood Springs: 8 inches
Gunnison: 7 inches
Pagosa Springs: 6 inches
The snowy conditions should be nice for the ski areas but tough on travel conditions. In addition to the snow on Thursday night, wind gusts of up to 60 mph were expected to cause blowing and drifting snow across roadways.
Deteriorating road conditions tonight in falling/drifting/blowing snow & 60mph winds making travel difficult --- follow @ColoradoDOT #cowx pic.twitter.com/GPFYx8uA1J
— NWS Boulder (@NWSBoulder) December 13, 2019
