After 20 days of no recordable snow at one of Colorado’s southwestern ski area, skiers and riders can rejoice — and ride powder snow — early this week as the forecast calls for heavy snow.

Continued storminess is looking like a possibility heading into the first week of February as well.

Recap:

Some of Arapahoe Basin Ski Area’s Steep Gullies terrain opened Friday, Steep Gullies 1, 2, and 4, with the rest set to be open in the next few days, according to Arapahoe Basin.

“The East Wall will be the last piece of the puzzle after The Steep Gullies,” the resort said. “We always hope to get it open by the end of February or early March, but sometimes it doesn’t open till April.”

Forecast:

Monday and Tuesday are forecast to be sunny and a lot warmer in the northern mountains, with high temperatures in the low 30s both days.

However, snow finally returns to the southern mountains after dismal snow accumulations throughout January. Outside of Silverton (160″), Purgatory (69″), Telluride (107″) and Wolf Creek (115″) have struggled with snow accumulating on their slopes in winter 2024-25, with each area not yet have reached 120″ on the season.

Snow showers develop Monday afternoon across the San Juan Mountains, bringing forecasted totals of between 10-20 inches by Thursday morning.

Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday and Thursday should be either light powder or powder powder days across the San Juan resorts.

Snow is forecast to stay south of Interstate 70 as well, with only a trace-2 inches to fall in the central and northern mountains.

A low pressure that broke off the main polar jet late last week will finally push eastward across Arizona and New Mexico, bringing snow to southern Colorado from Cortez to just west of Trinidad.

By Friday mid day, snow moves out heading into the weekend across Colorado.

Long range:

On Saturday, the northern mountains might get a dusting of snow, but nothing more than a trace-1 inch around the Park Range near Steamboat. This storm system forecast is pretty far out and will need more model runs to see if anything better will materialize.

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″