The snow is here Colorado! Winter has finally rubbed the crusties out of its eyes and realized, it’s way too sunny and hot! Let’s look at the specs of the first storm and the ones to arrive further this season.

First, the storm we had on Thursday, Nov 17, wasn’t exactly a blizzard but a good storm in itself. Snow was beginning to stick to our warm roads after several hours, which never happens with the first snow. That was enough to ice out the roads and make for multiple car accidents and lots of sliding. I myself have a four-wheel drive truck and completely missed a turn because I was sliding so fast; I did eventually stop remaining in my lane. As stated by Mr. Gorr here at Air Academy, “It doesn’t matter how many tires you have on your vehicle, rubber does not stick to ice!” Multiple other crashes were reported, one seen by our editor Jonathan Flat was an FJ Cruiser balanced on a boulder in a ditch.

So what can we see in the mountains from this? Well for starters, Breckenridge and Keystone opened over the weekend of November 19. This was exactly what they needed to cover their base layer of snow, a solid five inches of fresh powder. Now that isn’t particularly enough to open up double blacks or higher terrain, but it is enough to open up groomers and maybe a few terrain parks. With an 18inch base layer of snow, these two resorts, along with others, are still in need of fresh snow and cold temperatures.

The large snowstorms in Colorado don’t normally hit until the Spring. This is because we normally get more moisture in the spring rather than the winter, which will create a heavy, sticky snow than compared to a light, dry snow in the winter months. If you were planning on any large family ski trips, I would recommend Spring break or long weekends after February. By this time, spending a whole bunch of money on lodging will be worth all the snow to ski in.

At the moment there is much more weather to come, it appears that in the forecast the mountains will be getting quite the winter storm in the upcoming week. With cooling temperatures and frosted grass in the morning, the snow might stay a little longer. As for Colorado Springs, the storms appear to be missing us for the most part. Keep your hopes up and when one morning you are scraping the car of last night’s frost, there might be a little bit of snow to brush off.