Snow season is here. We will drive through a foot of the stuff to go skiing, but will opt out of school and work when having to drive through 5 inches of it.

With Arapahoe Basin, Breckenridge, Cooper Mountain, Keystone, Loveland, Vail, Winterpark, and Wolf Creek resorts now open, and Beaver Creek, Crested Butte, Durango, Monarch, Steamboat, and Telluride opening within the next week, ski season is also swiftly approaching.

While there is good news for skiers and snowboarders, those traveling must do so with caution.

KREX’s weekend Meteorologist Joe Thompson said, “For the next week we have a pretty big system coming in which is big news because it’s the busiest travel week of the year. The mountains are really going to get hammered from these storm systems.”

Although bone-chilling temperatures may not be most peoples ideal climate, it’s still good news for some.

“We will see a lot of cold temperatures with these storm systems and that can usually help produce that light, powdery snow that skiers and snowboarders love,” Thompson said “There is great news for snow boarders and skiers, the timing of the storm is not ideal for travelers, but very ideal for the ski slopes because most of them are in the process of opening, have opened, or will be opening in the next couple of weeks and this is going to give them a great base,” Thompson said.

For a complete list of Colorado ski resorts and their opening dates visit www.onthesnow.com.

For all travelers, Thompson recommends visiting CDOT’s website, www.cotrip.org, for up to date information about road closures when traveling this week.

“I am sure that at times, major highways and major interstates are going to be shut down because we are not going to just see heavy snows, we will be seeing wind gusts up to 60-65 mph so we are talking about white out conditions,” Thompson said. “Right now, it looks like on Wednesday afternoon – it should begin to clear up, there will still be some lingering snow in the mountains, and then Thanksgiving is actually looking pretty good, at least in terms of the weather being dry.”

Thompson had some advice for holidays travelers.

“Give yourself plenty of extra time and have supplies. It sounds cliché, but have blankets, and have coats, because it is shaping up to be one of those systems where it is going to be one storm after another,” Thompson said.

u