First of all, Happy Winter Solstice! Today is the shortest day of the year! It’s all uphill from now on.
The main weather type that has been impacting us since Sunday has been wind. And, jeeze, it has been breezy. The mountains and Foothills have seen gusts up to hurricane force! While areas around the Metro have seen 20-30 mph gusts. Needless to say, it’s been a bit blustery.
That won’t change too much. A tell-tale sign of windy conditions is the presence of Lenticular clouds. They form as a result of strong winds hitting the Rockies. Lenticular clouds are famous for creating beautiful sunsets over the Front Range and also creating a shadow that covers us for the entire day.
The forecast from now to Friday looks like a roller coaster ride of temperatures. Through Tuesday, temps will rise into the 50s and may even hit 60 Tuesday afternoon. This warmth will precede a Cold Front that will swing through Tuesday and plummet our temperatures to the low 20s and uper teens by Wednesday morning.
A *few* snow showers are possible Tuesday night into Wednesday for the Front Range but overall, this won’t be an impactful snow setup. This will bring COLD temperatures for Wednesday. Highs will only get to about freezing, so bundle up because it’s going to be breezy too.
The mountains will benefit some from the snow that comes with this cold front. Up to 6″ could fall in the northern mountains. Less the further south you go.
Once that system moves out, we will see a warmup as we head to the weekend.
Temps will be the coldest on Wednesday and will rebound to around 50º for the rest of the week/weekend.
Christmas day is looking warm and dry. So, there won’t be a White Christmas this year. At least in and around Denver. A few patches of snow may still be around but falling snow and new snow is not expected.
From what the GFS is showing, the only people with snow falling on Friday will be around the Great Lakes as a system strengthens and wraps cold air around itself to allow for snow to fall on the backside.
Looking Ahead
As we get passed this weekend, we will once again move into a more active pattern that should throw Denver and the Front Range some more snow and that will almost definitely bring the mountains more beneficial snow. As of now, it’s looking like we will need to watch for snow around the 27/28 and then again on New Years Eve and New Years Day.
Enjoy the weather this week! It’ll be all of the place but it’ll be most quiet.
~ Andy
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