Hello, Folks! Our latest storm that “could’ve been” was a no show basically. Just weak snow showers developed that dropped a half inch of snow on Downtown with really not much more falling in the Foothills. Here’s a look at how much snow fell from Sunday to Monday.
Southern and Eastern Colorado saw the most snow from the last system thanks to that system staying way far south. Regardless, it wasn’t a storm for the Denver area but we’ve had plenty of snow this month already. Denver has picked up 13.1″ of snow this month with that melting down to 1.00″ of liquid. It’s been a good March to us so far.
As we look ahead, there is the possibility of a storm before the end of the month but not all models are showing a storm, some are showing nothing. We’ll get to that in a sec but let’s talk about Tuesday and Wednesday. We’re wedged in between two main weather features. A trough bringing severe weather to the south Plains and a ridge of warm, dry weather building over the western US.
Being in between these two features means that today and Wednesday will be rather breezy at times. We could see 20-35 mph gusts in and around Denver both days and due to the flow around both of these systems, it will be a cold north wind blowing. As the trough pulls east, a weak little ripple of energy will push some higher lapse rates (higher lapse rates = more instability) towards the region. That will spawn a few snow showers across the higher terrain and possibly over the metro area as well.
Overall, not an impactful day today but a few snow showers or flurries are definitely expected. Up to 2-3″ of snow could fall in the high country but that’s all. Again, more of the story today and Wednesday will be the breezy conditions. Here’s a look at peak wind gusts expected.
The eastern half of Colorado with definitely be windier than the rest of the state but some breezy conditions are still expected in the mountains. From I-25 and points east, 20-40 mph wind gusts are expected Tuesday with the higher winds to the south and east of Denver. Similarly on Wednesday, the higher winds will be south and east of Denver but some 35-40 mph winds are possible in the Metro Wednesday.
Okay, onto the more fun part of the forecast! (For me personally, I’m ready for a bit of a break from the more active weather). Sunshine and warmth are returning to Colorado! So far this March, temperatures are running more than 4º below normal. It’s been cold and wet this month but I’m not complaining. The upcoming warmth will really feel like Fool’s Spring again.
We have a ridge of high pressure building into the west and this will dry us out and warm us up continuously through the weekend. While this means that we won’t be getting much snow or rain in the near-term forecast, we will be under pretty nice conditions so the trade off IMO is okay.
High temperatures as we head into the weekend will be 10-15º above average which lands up in the mid 70s for highs. With plenty of sunshine expected, it’ll be a fantastic weekend to get outside and enjoy some fresh Colorado sunshine. Enjoy it!
Our next (?) storm is possible before month’s end. The GFS is picking up on a potential storm in a prime location for big snows in and around Denver. The GFS is the same model that showed this most recent storm being the “big one” for us and that obviously didn’t happen. The EURO is showing a completely different solution with a ridge still in place with warm and dry weather expected.
This is still quite a ways about so put this on the back burner and we’ll check back in later once the models have things figured out a bit more.
Enjoy the pleasant weather that’s coming this weekend and weekend!
~Andy
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