Moderate snow is coming to Colorado’s mountains on Thursday, but a larger yet lighter moisture-content storm forecast for the weekend is also of interest and hopefully will bring a second round of decent snowfall totals by the end of the weekend.

To skiers’ and riders’ delight, some high-mountain expert terrain is finally opening up high for the season at Gunnison County’s Crested Butte Mountain Resort.

After receiving more than two feet of snow in the past 11 days, CBMR has opened its T-Bars, and all resort lifts are now open for the season, CBMR said Tuesday in a statement. CBMR finally crested the 100″ snowfall mark, with the Gunnison County ski area recording 115″ for the season.

Mid month the wintry storminess looks to take a break for a week before ramping back up heading into MLK Jr. Day weekend.

Recap:

Snow lingered on Tuesday in the early morning hours, mostly in the southern mountains, with another 1-3 inches falling before skies cleared out in the early afternoon.

Forecast:

On Wednesday, some day-time warming will occur across Colorado’s ski areas and mountains, but only into the upper teens and lower 20s due to frigid air having settled in overnight, where lows were forecast to be between 0 and -10 for several communities.

On Thursday, the area of low pressure dipping southward into Mexico will help pull in a line of showers from the north and north-northwest into Colorado throughout the day.

This band of snow will drop light snow mostly in the northern and central mountains with snowfall totals of between 4-8 inches and in the southern mountains between 3-6 inches.

Temperatures on Thursday will be similar to Wednesday, with highs in the upper teens and lower 20s, making for a cold storm-riding day across the resorts.

On Friday, temperatures will start very cold once again as the storm will have exited the state Thursday night.

From Friday night into Saturday morning, the larger system enters Colorado, this time on a northwest flow from a cut-off low-pressure system sweeping southeastward from British Columbia, Canada.

Snow is forecast to fall from Friday night into Sunday late night/overnight Monday, with powder days on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Snowfall totals from this larger, longer-living storm for the northern mountains range between 6-16 inches, in the central mountains between 6-9 inches, and in the southern mountains between 4-7 inches.

Ski areas and resorts farther east in the mountains could receive the most snow overall, however, the Sangre de Cristo and Wet mountains of the southern Front Range are forecast to receive between 8-18 inches when all is said and done.

The Flat Tops in northwestern Colorado, and Park and Medicine Bow ranges in northern Colorado could see higher totals upward of 20 inches by Monday from both storms.

Long range:

Lingering showers on Tuesday could add another 1-2 inches across the three main mountain zones, but the forecast calls for mostly clear skies each day until the start of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, Friday, Jan. 17 to Monday, Jan. 20.

More details about this potential stormy pattern will be known over the next few model runs, but the forecast models are not in concurrence yet meaning one says lots of snow (GFS), while another says little to no snow (ECMWF).

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

Arapahoe Basin – 0″

Aspen Highlands – 0″

Aspen Mountain – 0″

Beaver Creek – 0″

Breckenridge – 1″

Buttermilk – 0″

Cooper – 2″

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 – 2″

Keystone – 0″

Loveland – 0″

Monarch – 1″

Powderhorn – 0″

Purgatory – 1″

Silverton – 3″

Snowmass – 0″

Steamboat – 0″

Sunlight – 0″

Telluride – 3″

Vail – 0″

Winter Park – 0″

Wolf Creek – 2″