My heart goes out to those impacted by Hurricane Ian in Florida. The images coming from the Ft. Myers area are hard to fathom. Ian is headed towards South Carolina where it’ll make landfall as a category 1 hurricane Friday morning. Downtown Charleston, SC could get flooded from storm surge as well as Myrtle Beach. Hopefully we won’t have to worry about tropical systems much more this season.
The weather has been pleasant but warm the last few days here in Colorado, although it has been warmer than normal. Here’s a look at the temperature departure over the last 7 days.
Only a few areas have gotten above-normal moisture.
Forecast
As we look ahead over the next few days, we’ll see some wetter and cooler conditions move in. A cold front associated with a low pressure system with move just to the north of us and stall. This will bring multiple days of cooler weather with higher precip. chances. Due to the location of the low pressure, we won’t see huge rain (or snow…) totals but moisture is moisture.
Starting with this afternoon (Thursday), a few gusty showers are possible as we see our first ripple of energy move through. The cold front will move through Friday afternoon and bring more widespread chances of rain Friday and especially Saturday to Sunday morning.
Trailing moisture with continue to bring afternoon shower chances Monday and Tuesday with drying occurring Wednesday (which is not set in stone). Since we’re getting in October, air will be plenty cold enough for some snow above 10,000′. Details below on those snow chances.
Below is an animation of what the radar may look like over the next couple of afternoons. Overall storm chances rise for Friday and Saturday afternoon along the Urban Corridor but remain high most of the time between Friday-Sunday for the mountains.
You’ll notice a few pulses of energy moving through. Those will have embedded higher rainfall rates and snowfall rates for the higher elevations.
Here’s a look at the expected precip to fall between now and next Wednesday.
Not everyone will see the rain but it’s looking like quite a few people out there will get a little something. A half inch to and inch of rain for Colorado Springs and Denver would be great!
For snowfall, mainly above 9/10,000′ some snow will accumulate! This will be mainly above treeline so the Aspens and other colorful trees won’t see any (or very, very little) accumulation. If you’re leaf-peeping this weekend, it will be mostly cloudy a lot of the weekend but in between clouds and showers you may catch a glimpse of gold hillsides with snowcapped peaks.
Once the skies clear a bit Monday to Tuesday and beyond, there should still be snow-covered mountains that’ll make for some great photography. Rain and high elevation snow showers will continue Monday and Tuesday with drying and clearing possible by Wednesday.
Now this isn’t a huge storm by any means, but the more is calling for 2-6″ of snow for the peaks with some favored mountains getting a bit more. This is more than enough to to hang around for a couple of days given the cold air that will be up there too.
For the month of October, we’re looking at a continuation of warm and dry weather. While it’s not a guarantee, it is expected.
Let’s start hoping for some big storms so we can get that snowpack going.
~Andy
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