Thanksgiving Day offered up left-over and light powder-day snow for some northern mountain ski areas.

Snowpack average for the entire state on Thursday’s date is the 5th-highest overall for the 1991-2020 median average range.

The state will enter a prolonged dry and warm period, but a good amount of the snowpack will remain due to the time of year.

Recap:

The sun came out for the entire day on Thanksgiving, although temperatures in the mountains were rather cool.

According to the National Weather Service in Grand Junction the high in Aspen was 23 and the NWS in Boulder recorded a high of 24 in Winter Park. At the ski areas, temperatures were mostly in the teens.

However, Colorado’s snowpack increased significantly over the Thanksgiving  week.

Colorado’s snowpack on Nov. 24 was 105% of average, with 2.9 inches of snow water equivalent locked up in the snow. By Nov. 28, the snowpack rose 34 percentage points to 139%, with 4.4 inches of snow water equivalent, a rise of 1.5 inches.

For comparison, only 1987 (6.3 inches), 1992 (5.7 inches), 1995 (4.7 inches) and 2005 (4.6 inches) had more snow water equivalent inches than winter 2025 on this date.

Winter 2024-25 is following similar weather and snow patterns like winter 2004-05. That winter saw similar large snow events for a few days followed by long durations of dry and warm, with little to no snow accumulations.

But winter 2004-05 was also an El Niño year.

Drawing a correlation between our current winter and that winter with the similar weather patterns observed most likely doesn’t match up long term, however.

A weak or strong La Niña year — winter 2024-25 is forecast to be a weak La Niña winter — historically benefits northern Colorado with more snow than southern Colorado, where as El Niño years tend to be the opposite. The southern mountains historically receive more snow and the northern mountains less.

However, winter 2024-25 has seen large snow events in all three mountain zones thus far. It’ll be interesting to observe how the remaining winter season will play out and make correlations at the end of winter, but for now, fun food for thought.

Forecast:

On Friday, temperatures will continue to rebound after the storm, with highs into the low 30s at most ski area bases.

From Friday to Monday, Dec. 9, daily and nightly temperatures will warm a couple of degrees each day, with no large snow event systems on the horizon.

The only exception is on Saturday a passing low pressure north of Colorado will shuttle through Montana and Wyoming, maybe delivering a trace-1 inch of snow to the northern Park and Medicine Bow mountains in extreme northern Colorado.

The polar jet stream is forecast to stay north and northeast of Colorado for approximately the next 10 days.

The ECMWF 500 mb Height (dam) Wind (kt) forecast model of the United States from Friday to Monday, Dec. 9, forecasts any storm energy to push across the US north of Colorado until Monday, Dec. 9, when a shift back to stormy conditions is possible.

Luckily the sun’s position in the southern sky is low and daylight hours run about 9 hours and 35 mins each day, meaning not much melting will occur on the slopes.

Long range:

Monday, Dec. 9 looks like shift returns to stormy and wintry conditions for Colorado. More details and model runs will need to happen before any significant details about snow accumulations, timing and duration of a new storm are known.

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

Arapahoe Basin – 0″

Aspen Highlands – Opens Dec. 14

Aspen Mountain – 0″

Beaver Creek – 0″

Breckenridge – 0″

Buttermilk – Opens Dec. 14

Cooper – Opens Dec. 11

Copper Mountain – 0″

Crested Butte – 0″

Echo Mountain – Opens in December

Eldora Mountain – 0″

Granby Ranch – 0″

Hesperus – Closed for the season

Howelsen Hill – Opens Nov. 30

Kendall Mountain – Opens Dec. 20

Keystone – 0″

Loveland – 0″

Monarch – 0″

Powderhorn – 0″

Purgatory – 0″

Silverton – Opens Dec. 28

Snowmass – 0″

Steamboat – 0″

Sunlight – Opens Dec. 13

Telluride – 0″

Vail – 0″

Winter Park – 0″

Wolf Creek – 0″