Unseasonably warm weather starting out November forced Colorado ski resorts to turn off their snowguns for extended periods this week.

While forecasts indicate that the hot, dry start to the ski season is likely to continue next week, Colorado climate experts say that it’s still too early for skiers and snowboarders to worry that the lack of early-season snow is an omen of what might come.

“It’s still very early,” Colorado State Climatologist Russ Schumacher said. “So, it’s not anything people need to be too concerned about at this point in the season, but usually we would have had some snowstorms, one or two at least, in the mountains by this time in the fall.”

Despite a lack of major snowstorms to start out the season, three Colorado ski areas — Keystone, Arapahoe Basin and Winter Park — were able to open in October, each about a week earlier than last season. 

Relying largely on manmade snow, more ski resorts continue to push to open. Breckenridge Ski Resort and Copper Mountain are on track to open Friday, as planned, and Loveland Ski Area has announced plans to open Saturday. 

OpenSnow Founding Meteorologist Joel Gratz said that he expects the warm weather and lack of significant precipitation this week to slow terrain expansion efforts at ski resorts. 

“For the next 10 days, I doubt there will be a lot of progress on any additional terrain,” Gratz said. “Maybe if the next few days go well, there could be a little more terrain, but when it gets warm next week and there’s only nighttime snowmaking, that’s pretty limiting.”

Gratz noted that OpenSnow’s new snowmaking forecast shows that wet-bulb temperatures across the state have not been ideal for snowmaking this week, and likely won’t be next week either.

The wet-bulb temperature is a combination of the actual temperature and the amount of moisture in the air. Ski areas are typically looking for a wet-bulb temperature of about 26 degrees or lower to make snow. 

“This is what snowmakers have used for forever to figure out when they can make snow, but often it was hard or impossible to find a forecast for the wet bulb temperature that was publicly accessible,” Gratz said. “It was really just something ski resorts had. We wanted to make this more easily accessible for people.”

Hot and dry, with ‘hope’ in the future

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<figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Snowmaking begins at Copper Mountain on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. Copper Mountain will officially open for the 2025-25 season on Friday, Nov. 7.</figcaption><figcaption>Ian Zinner/Copper Mountain Resort</figcaption>

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Colorado’s snowpack on Thursday was at just 14% of median for this time of year, according to the National Water and Climate Center. That ranks in the 3rd percentile, meaning that 97% of years on record had a deeper snowpack so far.

As Denver and the Front Range experienced temperatures in the mid-80s over the weekend, Schumacher said the mountains also roasted. On Nov. 2, he said the temperature in Leadville reached 59 degrees, tying the high temperature record for that day, and the Williams Fork Dam in Grand County set a new daily high record of 65 degrees. Warmer temperatures in the 60s lingered through midweek in the mountains.

While the end of this week is expected to be colder with chances for small snow accumulations in parts of the northern mountains, Schumacher said temperatures are expected to rise again next week.

“It’s been warm and dry without even chances for precipitation over the last 10 days or so, and it looks like that pattern is going to continue for at least the next week or so,” he said. “Then, there is some hope in the longer range forecast.”

Starting around Nov. 15, Schumacher said “it looks like the pattern will shift” with more chances for snow in the mountains. He noted that it is hard to say for certain how those weather patterns will play out, since the forecast is so far out.

Gratz said he is also looking hopefully to the latter half of November for potential snow. Right now, he said models are suggesting that Colorado’s southern mountains, including the San Juans, could receive the most snow during the wetter period that starts around Nov. 15.

“I think it will be nice to see the snow. It will feel more like winter, but I don’t know that that storm cycle is going to change the game and instantly allow a lot of places to open terrain,” Gratz said. “All of this said, it’s November. It’s early, and November snowfall, early season snowfall, has very little to no correlation with snow for the rest of the season.”

Ski areas plug ahead

With the poor snowmaking conditions and a lack of natural snow, Colorado ski resorts are looking for every snowmaking window that becomes available, running snowguns overnight when temperatures drop.​​

A-Basin Vice President of Mountain Operations Louis Skowyra said in an email that the ski area is right on track for where it usually is this time of year as far as how much snow it’s been able to make.

“It’s been warm, but it’s important to remember that it’s normal for temperatures to fluctuate this time of year,” Skowyra said. “And it’s normal to not have experienced a big snowstorm just yet. We know they’re coming. We just have to be patient.”

Keystone spokesperson Sarah Mclear noted that the resort was able to open top-to-bottom skiing thanks at least in part to the resort’s high-tech snowguns that have built in weather stations and turn on automatically when the conditions are right.

Breckenridge spokesperson Max Winters said that while temperatures the past few days “have been warmer than we would have liked,” snowgun upgrades have helped the allowed ski resort work toward opening.

“We invested in brand-new, state-of-the-art snowmaking technology over the summer,” Winter said. “So we’ve been able to maximize even the smallest windows to make as much snow as possible. That, paired with the hard work of our teams, is why we’re able to open this Friday.”