Rain and snow will be making itself known, once again, along the Front Range.
Sometimes during weird moments in life, a simple change of scenery can make a huge difference. Hopefully, the change in our weather scenery will provide some aspect of changing up what's currently the "norm."
There's a storm cycling around California right now and, much like the last storm, we saw a week ago, it will bring in some Pacific moisture and winds with it. First off, it will not be a storm with the same magnitude as the last—at least not in Denver.
A trough, or an area of low pressure, swinging through the Western U.S. will eventually gain some strength once it reaches the Rockies and points East. What that means for us here in Colorado is that moisture will move into the state as early as Thursday evening. Starting first up in the High Country mainly as snow. By Friday morning, some of the Central mountains may have 1-4 inches of snow on the ground.
Moisture will then fill into the Front Range Friday morning. This will mainly start out as rain showers as temperatures will be in the 40s, but as that low-pressure strengthens, it will bring colder in with it and temperatures on Friday and that will eventually cool us down enough for all snow to fall. When that happens, it will likely be late morning to early afternoon. With how warm it has been and with the higher sun angle now, accumulations probably will hold off until the evening, when the sun begins to set.
Since this low is expected to strengthen, areas to the east of Denver, like near Limon, may end up with quite a bit of snow and wind from this storm.
Snow Totals
For Denver, we are looking at a slushy 1-4 inches of accumulation by Saturday morning. Again, precipitation will start as rain on Friday and then transition to snow in the afternoon. At times the snow may be heavy—in typically spring-like fashion.
Areas near Boulder and down toward Castle Rock have a better shot at seeing 2-5 inches of snow.
The questionable spots are further east of Denver where upwards of a half a foot of snow may fall. (TBD there.)
Fort Collins/Greeley will look to get 0-2 inches of snow from this storm. This just isn't a favorable set up for heavy snow for those areas.
Since travel is now limited across the state, we shouldn't have to worry about too many road impacts but those who do need to venture out from Friday evening to Saturday morning, you'll likely run into slick spots.
The mountains are looking to pick up anywhere between 2-8 inches of snow, which will further add to the snowpack. The snowpack in the Colorado Rockies typically reaches its peak snowpack on April 11. With the way things are looking, we should be right on track for that to occur.
Looking Ahead
There are signs of another storm impacting Colorado and Denver early next week. That could bring another round of heavy mountain snow and another round of rain/snow mix to Denver. After that, it seems as though we are going to have an active start to April in terms of storm systems moving through. Right now, it's a little early to say but the possibility of April snow is definitely there. We typically see a good amount of snow in April, so we are not done with the snow season yet but right now, it seems as though that is okay. Although we can no longer play in the mountains, currently.
April is a big transition month for Denver. It's the main time between winter and summer. We should be talking about a few more snow chances, but we are also going to begin to talk about severe weather and the return of thunderstorms. Another fascinating weather feature to track.
Stay safe! Be well. Enjoy the weather.
