December starts snowy across Colorado’s high country after a snowy end to November. Skiers and riders can rejoice as multiple powder days are forecast over the next week.

A few ski areas had to push back their opening dates to this week instead of during the Thanksgiving holiday week, but Monarch kicks off the first-to-open-late party on Tuesday.

“Our team has poured their hearts into getting ready for this season,” GM Chris Haggerty said. “Relying solely on all-natural snowfall, our crew becomes a group of snow farmers — getting creative with harvesting the snow that falls, using fences, transporting snow from around the mountain, and building natural features to catch every flake.”

More snow is forecast sometime in the middle of the second week of December.

Recap:

Aspen Mountain, Snowmass Mountain and Beaver Creek all opened some terrain for skiing and riding over the holiday weekend, bringing the total of open Colorado ski areas to 16.

Snow began falling Sunday in all three mountain zones, with forecasted totals for Monday’s first chairs in the northern mountains to be between 2-4 inches, in the central mountains between 4-7 inches and in the southern mountains between 3-6 inches.

Snowfall totals on Monday morning were a bit higher, with up to 8 inches in the northern mountains, up to 12 inches in the central mountains and about forecast in the southern mountains.

Forecast:

On Monday, snow ends late morning across the state and day-time temperatures will remain cold with highs only in the low 20s near base areas and low teens near summits. Low temperatures on Monday night could drop below 0 in some spots.

On Tuesday, light snow is forecast to return to the northern and west-central mountains on a wave of energy dipping southeastward ahead of a larger area of low pressure making its was eastward also.

The low pressure is forecast to sweep across the southern half of Colorado Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, falling apart some on its way east.

Snow does continue on Wednesday, however, and ends late night or into Thursday morning.

Additional forecasted snowfall totals by Thursday morning in the northern mountains are between 1-3 inches, in the central mountains between 2-5 inches and in the southern mountains between 3-6 inches with the highest totals in the eastern San Juan Mountains and Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Long-term forecast:

Storminess continues heading into the weekend. Additional snow is forecast from Friday through Sunday for all three mountain zones, but the northwestern and west-central mountains look to benefit the most.

The GFS and ECWMF forecasts have two disturbances pushing through Colorado across the northern half of the state, one on Friday afternoon into Saturday, then one on Saturday night through Sunday midday.

Heading into the second week of December, more storms are possible, currently trending toward Wednesday, Dec. 10 to Friday, Dec. 12.

Colorado ski resorts’ planned opening dates and 24-hour totals:

Arapahoe Basin – 2″

Aspen Highlands – Dec. 13

Aspen Mountain – 7″

Beaver Creek – 8″

Breckenridge – 4″

Buttermilk – Dec. 13

Cooper – Dec. 10

Copper Mountain – 4″

Crested Butte – 7″

Echo Mountain – Dec. 12

Eldora Mountain – 1″

Granby Ranch – 2″

Hesperus – Closed for the season

Howelsen Hill – Dec. 6

Kendall Mountain – December

Keystone – 4″

Loveland – 4″

Monarch – Dec. 2

Powderhorn – Delayed, ASAP

Purgatory – 4″

Silverton – Private mountain after Dec. 1, Guided and Heli season Dec. 27

Snowmass – 12″

Steamboat – 6″

Sunlight – Dec. 12

Telluride – Dec. 6

Vail – 6″

Winter Park – 6″

Wolf Creek – 1″