It is finally feeling like summer in Summit County – unless you’re above 10,000 feet.
Snowpack at Hoosier Pass this morning is 400 percent of average, according to the National Water and Climate Center. Locals at the base of Hoosier and into Blue River report feet of snow still clinging to the shadows. Across the entire Upper Colorado River Basin snowpack is 171 percent of average.
Arapahoe Basin is still open through June 9 at least, where skiers and riders have a 50-inch base this final day of May. That’s one of the deepest late-season bases in recent years.
You can thank (or blame) a chilly Mayuary. Average temperature this month at the Krystalized Weather Station in Dillon was 2 to 4 degrees colder than recent years. Nighttime temps were up to 10 degrees colder, bottoming out at 14.7 degrees on May 8.
And then there was all that snow to start the month. Loveland was buried under 28 inches before closing day on May 12. Breckenridge got 27 inches and Copper Mountain 24 inches.
Copper closes with the most snow of any ski area on the I-70 mountain corridor, 352 total inches this season, just one inch more than Breckenridge.
It’s a stark contrast to southern Colorado, where snowpack is 15 points lower than average.