YOUR AD HERE »

Aspen’s February snow about average

Janet Urquhart
The Aspen Times
Aspen, CO, Colorado

ASPEN – February snowfall in Aspen was about average.

Now, all eyes are on March – the month that, a year ago, heralded the arrival of spring, though it felt like summer. Last year, March set a record low for snowfall at Aspen’s water plant.

February, at least, measured up, with 25.9 inches of snow at the plant. The average for the month is 25.6 inches.



Last month’s snows amounted to a lot of dry fluff, making skiers happy but faltering in drought relief. The moisture content of the snow was 1.67 inches, compared with the average of 1.86 inches for the month, the Aspen Water Department reported.

On the mountains, February snows blessed Snowmass in particular. The ski area picked up 60 inches over the course of the month, a considerable improvement over last year’s 48 inches and higher than the 52-inch average February snowfall at Snowmass.




February brought 47 inches to Aspen Mountain, shy of the 50-inch average for the month but a slight improvement over the 46 inches that fell on the mountain in February 2012.

Aspen Highlands and Buttermilk both saw 30 inches of snowfall in February, well off the average of 50 and 45 inches, respectively.

March started out with a bang, bringing a powder day to local slopes Monday. Snowmass reported 6 inches of new snow over the past 24 hours in its Tuesday morning report and 11 inches over the past 48 hours. Aspen Highlands had 6 inches over the 24-hour period and 14 inches over two days. Aspen Mountain reported 5 and 8 inches, respectively, while Buttermilk had 3 and 6 inches, respectively.

Silverton in southwest Colorado reported a whopping 18 inches of new snow Tuesday morning, but most other ski areas around the state reported lesser snowfall amounts than did Aspen and Snowmass. Breckenridge, however, reported 8 inches over 24 hours as of Tuesday morning and 17 inches over the previous 48 hours. Vail had 5 and 10 inches, respectively.

Aspen’s forecast calls for dry weather into the weekend.