Beautiful Spring day across the state, with temps in the upper 60's and low 70's across eastern CO at lower elevations, and in the upper 50's and low 60's in the foothills. Sunday will see a few more mid and high clouds and temps a bit cooler, but in general another very nice day for late March.
On Monday, a weak upper trough will approach CO and bring a few showers to the northern and central mountains with snow level around 10,000 ft. Upper trough and associated cold front will move acros the state Monday night and create some gusty westerly winds in the foothills and adjacent plains into Tuesday morning with speeds in the 20-45 mph range. Tuesday will see temps closer to seasonal norms and a few lingering showers in the High Country north of I-70 with snow level 7000-8000 ft.
Latest models now keep most of CO dry Wednesday and Thursday with temps near seasonal norms each day. Upper ridge then builds across the Great Basin leaving CO dry with temps rising above seasonal norms from next Friday through next weekend.
The following week also looks dry and mild for CO through about Thursday, April 2. Next precip chances according to medium range models looks to be the weekend of April 3-5. With an extended sry period and temps above seaosnal norms, lack of snow and dry grasses will create heightened fire danger in areas absent snow.
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"Climatology is what you expect, Weather is what you get".
"It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong".
A Happy Vernal Equinox to all. Spring weather in Colorado can be extreme, with sunny days in the 80's as well as heavy snowstorms and severe thunderstorms, sometimes within hours of each other.
After a meager snowfall, but decent moisture from this past system, another beautiful weekend is on tap statewide, with mostly sunny skies and temps well above seasonal norms. Saturday looks to be the warmer day, as some mid and high clouds will filter across the state Sunday, but no precip is expected.
For next week, upper ridge will remain over the western U.S., but a series of weak systems will move through upper ridge from the Pacific. First system will bring a chance of precip to western CO on Monday as showers affect areas west of the Divide with snow level around 10,000 ft. Eastern CO should remain dry Monday with temps again above seasonal norms. Weak cold front moves across the state Monday night, so temps will cool to near seasonal norms on Tuesday, with some snow showers persistsing in the High Country Monday night into Tuesday. Next system skirts to our north Tuesday night into Wednesday morning bringing a few more showers over the mountains with snow level 6000-7000 ft along with dry conditions and temps near seasonal norms over eastern CO.
Best chance for precip across eastern CO will be Wednesday night into Thursday afternoon as a colder system from the northwest moves across CO. Snow level will be down to plains level and the foothills as well as Urban Corridor and plains could see a few inches of snow, but nothing major. Next Friday into next weekend look dry and mild statewide, and dry conditions look to persist through the end of March, insuring we will remain well below our average snowfall for March. We currently have 7.5 inches for the month, well short of our average near 30 inches for March. Seasonal snowfall stands at 94 inches on Conifer Mountain, and normal at the end of March is around 123 inches, so about 76% of average. No major snow events appear in extended range models at this time. Interesting that the last time we had more than 24 inches from a single storm on Conifer Mountain was back in February of 2012 when we received 38.5 inches Feb 2-4.
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"Climatology is what you expect, Weather is what you get".
"It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong".
Too bad future generations aren't here to see all the great things we are spending their $$ on!!
