After a period of mild, mostly calm weather, winter is ready to return to the Colorado high country. While Sunday, December 8, remained relatively mild, a colder system is creeping in and will last through Tuesday, delivering fresh snow – nothing major, but enough to revitalize the slopes and liven up the scene.

Expect a noticeable drop in temperatures as this front moves in, along with a welcome break from recent inversions. It’s a modest warm-up in early December before we move back into more seasonal patterns mid-week.

Among Colorado’s resorts, the northern and central mountains have the best chance of more meaningful coverage. From Monday morning through Tuesday afternoon, the total number of storms is expected to be around:

Steamboat: 4-7 inches

Aspen Snowmass: 4-6 inches

Vail/Beaver Creek: 2-4 inches

Telluride: 2-4 inches

Copper Mountain/Breckenridge: 2-3 inches

Monarch: 2-3 inches

Winter park: 2-3 inches

Wolf Creek: 1-2 inches

Crested Butte: 2 inches

Loveland/Arapahoe Basin: 2 inches

Expect a mostly dry day in the Colorado mountains on Sunday, with conditions continuing through another afternoon. From Sunday into Monday, a colder system moving in from the north will bring a noticeable shift, bringing fresh snow in many areas – although not a major snowfall, but more of a modest refreshment. Temperatures will fall back toward seasonal norms or below, and some resorts stuck under inversions may eventually experience a brief period of mixing as the system pushes through.

Snow should begin to fall over the northern mountains Sunday night into Monday morning and spread southward through Monday. The heaviest accumulations are expected to be concentrated in the central and northern mountain ranges, while the southern mountains have more modest totals. The core of the snow event will continue Monday morning into Tuesday, but the intensity may fluctuate as cooler air continues to move into the region. Check out the 12z HRRR run, which shows the gist of the snow event (but misses some of the lingering showers at the end):

After the middle of the week, temperatures will return to normal or be slightly above. Another weaker system could pass through next weekend or early next week and the chance of additional snowfall may be low. Keep an eye on the extended forecasts; While no blockbuster storms are expected in the immediate vicinity, subtle changes in the pattern could bring new opportunities for powder as we move further into December.

The latest long-range ensembles show a very disappointing signal for the remainder of December and early January, with strong wave crests in the west and moderate troughs in the east. That doesn’t mean there won’t be snow during this time, but this pattern makes it significantly harder for snowfall to advance westward:

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