I have to say nobody was expecting 6 inches at Purgatory. I was up there until about 3 pm and it didn’t really stop. I mentioned yesterday how extraordinary it was to get that much snow with an unfavorable flow. What was interesting is the snow stake was not accurately representing what was falling, there were about 3 inches on my car when I left. There is always some secrecy surrounding the location of snow stakes at resorts. Purgatory is no exception when I ask select people in the know they clam up and button their lip. I have deduced that front of the snow stake faces west. I don’t really care where it is I just wish they would put it somewhere that accurately depicts the snowfall totals.
Telluride ended up with 8 inches and Wolf Creek 2 inches while Silverton Mountain has picked up 26 inches over the last 48 hours with 22 inches falling in 24 hours!
The Euro and GFS are getting closer to coming together in their forecast for next week. The GFS is showing light snow starting on Sunday and continuing on and off through Tuesday. The Euro is a little slower and shows snow starting later on Sunday but also continuing on and off through Tuesday morning. The Euro brings in another system Wednesday while the GFS holds off until Friday when it brings in a large storm. The Euro also is showing a large storm tracking over our area but just a little later on Friday night or Saturday morning. Both keep the snow going throughout next weekend with reinforcing waves of energy. Both also show additional storms lined up for the following week.
So here are the 10-day snow totals from the most recent model runs. I have intentionally left the Canadian off of here because its run looks like an anomaly.
Euro
And the GFS
The devil, of course, is in the details. I have mentioned this before but many times we see the models get the amounts right over an extended period of time, but they differ in how they arrive at that amount. So I am short on the details at this point, but I hope to have a better idea tomorrow and Sunday. Next Update Saturday afternoon.