Colorado’s skiers and snowboarders can expect some fresh snow this weekend – especially if the National Weather Service ‘high-end’ snowfall forecast holds true.

Forecast mapping that accounts for Wednesday through Saturday morning shows that in the ‘expected’ and most likely scenario (80% chance), about 12 to 18 inches of snow lands along the Continental Divide in the northern half of Colorado. Meanwhile, many mountain ranges in the northern half of the state should get between eight to 12 inches of snow. Based on this mapping, the storm is setting up to favor many major resorts around the state with the main exception to the moisture being those of the southwest. Travel concerns could occur with I-70 expected to get about 11 inches in the area of the Eisenhower Johnson Memorial Tunnels. If the 10 percent-chance ‘high-end’ forecast ends up coming to fruition, that could mean a lot more snow, too.

In the ‘high-end’ scenario, northern Colorado is still favored, though parts of southwest Colorado could end up with respectable snowfall totals in the range of six to 12 inches. Northern Colorado still gets deeper totals though, looking at about eight to 12 inches on a more widespread scale. Some peaks end up in the 18 to 24-inch range, as well. The ‘high-end’ scenario would also mean about three inches of snow in Denver through Saturday morning at 5 a.m. Also noteworthy is that 13 inches of snow would be possible along I-70 in the Eisenhower Tunnel area, likely to impact some aspects of travel.

Per the OpenSnow resort-by-resort report, Eldora gets the most powder over the next five days at 13 inches. Most ski areas, however, get at least half a foot.

The mapping below depicts both the ‘expected’ and the ‘high-end’ snowfall scenarios that are provided by the National Weather Service:

The National Weather Service has issued a variety of winter storm watches and winter storm advisories related to this storm. Find regional specific information related to those alerts here.

Find additional forecasting information on the National Weather Service website.

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