There's hope! Yippeeee! Praise the lord (this is not a religious statement, so don't get all crazy on me). Praise Ullr. Praise anyone and anything thing!

The good news is that a strong storm looks likely next Friday/Saturday, November 9-10. Yes, this is eight to nine days away, and you know how I hate long range forecasts. However, most of the models show this storm hitting Colorado, and we need something positive to talk about, so hallelujah! Here's the forecast for next Saturday:

In the mean time, clouds will cover the state on Thursday and Thursday night, but the storm responsible for these clouds will weaken as it nears Colorado and slightly colder air will be the main impact. There could be a few flurries or snow showers at higher elevations Thursday evening through midday Friday north of I-70, but it won't be a big deal.

Enjoy the warm sunny weather and prepare for a nice storm late next week. Of course it's way too early to know who will get the most snow, but it does appear that this could be a storm that puts down more than a foot of snow for some areas.

JOEL GRATZ

PS - I had a great day yesterday skiing with the US Ski Team and some lucky season passholders at Copper Mountain who were on hand for the opening of the US Ski Team's Speed Center. Copper and the US Ski Team worked for years to develop a regulation downhill course that the team could use for early-season training. This doesn't exist anywhere else and should give the team a nice advantage going into the earlier races of the season. I posted more pictures here and included a choice photograph below that shows how we celebrated Halloween on the hill (Pete Woods from Copper on the left in old race gear and me on the right in my 80s Rockstar costume, complete with a pin advocating that you "Vote for Snow" because all rockers need a cause).