Snow starts falling New Year’s Day afternoon and continues overnight, with a quick shot of between 2 and 8 inches for Colorado’s northern and central mountains. 

After bitter cold low temperatures on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day mornings, a return to seasonal temperatures starts, and multiple chances for snow for the first week of 2025.

Recap: 

Tuesday morning’s slows were rather cold across Colorado’s high country and ski areas. Granby Ranch recorded a low of -5, Copper Mountain -2, Breckenridge -3, Winter Park 0, and Crested Butte -1. 

Snowfall totals, however, were in the plus category, with most northern and central ski areas reporting between 4-8 inches.

Forecast:

On New Year’s Day Wednesday, temperatures will rise a little bit more than Tuesday’s, but the story will be a fast-approaching storm that will drop several inches on the northern and central mountains from this afternoon into Thursday morning.

The ECWMF model forecasts snow accumulations in the northern mountains from between 4-8 inches, in the central mountains between 1-4 inches, and the southern mountains between a trace-1 inch. 

The best powder days will be Thursday and Friday north of Interstate 70 and further east towards the Continental Divide.

The New Year’s Day storm has plenty of moisture associated with it too. Relative humidity levels of 75% and above accompanied by temperatures in the mid-20s could produce possible ‘extra snow’ in the northern mountains especially. 

Friday and Saturday will be mostly sunny and dry as the state is in between storms.

Colorado’s snowpack:

The state’s snowpack has recovered nearly back to 100% of average, with the snowpack at 96% of average heading into 2025. The snow water equivalent is at 6.2 inches with 99 days to go until the average median peak day of April 8.

All Colorado River basins but one, the Upper Rio Grande, are above 85% of the snowpack average, with the Arkansas River basin holding the highest total at 105% above average.

2025’s first snow event could fill the northern Colorado River basins back to or even above 100% by the first weekend of the new year.

Long range:

On Sunday, another round of storminess enters the state and is forecast to last approximately to Tuesday. The northern and central mountains again should benefit the most from this storm.

More details pertaining to snowfall totals, duration of storm, and impacts will be ironed out as forecast model runs collect more data. 

Today’s 24-hour snow totals from Colorado resorts:

Arapahoe Basin – 0″

Aspen Highlands – 0″

Aspen Mountain – 0″

Beaver Creek – 0″

Breckenridge – 0″

Buttermilk – 0″

Cooper – 0″

Copper Mountain – 0″

Crested Butte – 0″

Echo Mountain – 0″, plus tubing

Eldora Mountain – 0″

Granby Ranch – 0″

Hesperus – Closed for the season

Howelsen Hill – 0″

Kendall Mountain – 0″

Keystone – 0″

Loveland – 0″

Monarch – 0″

Powderhorn – 0″

Purgatory – 0″

Silverton – 0″

Snowmass – 0″

Steamboat – 0″

Sunlight – 0″

Telluride – 0″

Vail – 0″

Winter Park – 0″

Wolf Creek – 0″