Snows for Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday
Monday, November 21, 2016
A warm southwest flow ahead of the next storm brought a quick round of showers early this morning and is expected to do the same around sunset. There was some thunder associated with the storm earlier today down south and that threat will be present for the rest of the day as the bands of precipitation move northward.
But it appears the bulk of the warm precipitation will stay to our south and west until cooler air courtesy of the loosely connected northern portion of the storm moves through our area tonight and winds veer to our favored northwest direction. There is some uncertainty as the bands of heaviest precipitation are forecast to be close, and if they track a but further east than currently predicted, we may receive periods of moderate to heavy precipitation with dense snow at the higher elevations around midnight.
Regardless, behind these bands, we will likely see light to moderate snowfall down to the base with the cooler northwest flow around the several hours before and after sunrise before the snows turn more showery during the day Tuesday and end in the late afternoon or evening.
Snowfall amounts may be in the 4-8” range by Tuesday afternoon with the higher totals at the higher elevations due to the colder temperatures.
A transient ridge is forecast for Wednesday bringing a nice mostly sunny and warm Opening Day with fresh snow.
A quick-moving wave with colder air than the Tuesday storm passes over northern Colorado Wednesday night, and models have trended a bit stronger with more generous precipitation. We could see 3-6” of snow between midnight on Wednesday and noon on Thanksgiving Day before a building ridge brings dry air, sunny conditions and warming temperatures for Friday and Saturday.
Models now have another moderate storm for Sunday, a brief break on Monday and are advertising a much larger and more impressive storm for early in the next work week.
