After a much needed warm and sunny weekend, we’re jumping back on the snow train this week. A rather potent storm is heading towards our area right now and it’s expected to bring the coldest air of the season and possibly our biggest snow of the season as well.
Our changing weather begins today with gusty winds developing over the area. A mountain wave setup is looking to build as westerly winds interact with the mountains. This will bring gusts up to 80mph from areas near Boulder, to Nederland, to Bailey to Estes Park.
A cold front will drop south across our area by Tuesday morning bringing much colder air to the Mile High City. After a warm day Monday, Tuesday’s cold will be very noticable. Highs are not expected to get above freezing Tuesday afternoon and snow should start to fall across the metro area around or just after the evening commute.
This will be a pretty classic upslope snow event so areas west of Denver will end up with the most snow out of this system. Snow will continue overnight into Wednesday with another push of cold air and reinforcing upslope winds which will allow the snow to keep falling throughout the entire day on Wednesday. This storm will be a bit different than the other storms we’ve had recently for the reason that it will last a bit longer. Rather than an in-and-out storm, this one will move in, linger, possibly linger a bit more and then finally move out almost 36 hours later. That will allow snow totals to stack up.
Here’s a look at some expected snow totals with this storm. This will be how much falls by Thursday morning.
Denver: 4-6″
Boulder: 6-8″
Ft. Collins: 6-8″
Colorado Springs: 4-6″
Bailey: 4-6″
With this being a long-duration upslope snow event, we’ll likely see some surprisingly big snowfall totals. It’s not out of the question to expect a foot of snow in Boulder and the rest of the Foothills west of Denver.
These snow totals will change a bit before the first flakes fly (they could possibly go up) but regardless, an impactful snowstorm is likely. The biggest impacts you will face will come Wednesday for the morning and evening commutes. On top of this, temperatures will be brutally cold on Wednesday and Thursday.
While we’ve had some negative readings already this season, the incoming blast of cold will be more widespread and will impact more people. Thursday morning low temperatures are expected to drop anywhere from negative 2 to negative 12 with the wind making it feel more like the teens and twenties below zero at times. This kind of cold is very dangerous to humans and animals. Be sure to prepare for this kind of cold.
This will boost our snow numbers for this season nicely. We’re currently running a deficit of near 10-inches but this will close that gap a bit and make the possibility of having an average snow season more likely.
Enjoy the cold and snow if you can!
~Andy
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