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Sat Update: The Front Range Forecast: Spring rolls on

Spring is in the air, minor Tuesday/Wednesday rain/snow storm.
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Figure 2 update: the 10 day graphical forecast for Denver from weatherunderground.com

In Brief:

Spring is in the air, minor Tuesday/Wednesday rain/snow storm.

Sunday update:

Not much weather has occurred over the last week and the next week looks 'mostly' quiet as well (Figure 2 update). There are some showers (mainly rain with a trace to an inch (??) of snow overnight into Wednesday morning. There is an indication of a wetter pattern beyond that but I'll believe it when I see it.  I'm ending Spring Break right now - updates will become more frequent again!

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Figure 2 update: the 10 day graphical forecast for Denver from weatherunderground.com

End Sunday update.

Monday update:

Spring-like weather is here! A front arrives to bring back a chill Wednesday afternoon and we don't really warm up again until next Tuesday. Our, once possibly large, mid-week storm has shrunk to just a few rain and maybe snow showers for I-25 folks.  The mountains will continue to pile up a bit more snow.

Note: The first day of spring is Monday, March 20, 2023, at 3:24 p.m. MDT.

 

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Figure 1 update: the 10 day graphical forecast for Denver from weatherunderground.com

End Monday update.

Forecast Discussion:

It is beginning to feel like spring (only 12 days away) as the normal high temperature is now 53F. We will see 60s+ early this week. It will be fantastic (Figure 1). That 'heat' comes from a large ridge moving in that will dominate the West for a few days (Figure 2). Enjoy a walk or hike!

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Figure 1: the 10 day graphical forecast for Denver from weatherunderground.com
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Figure 2: the 500mb upper air forecast map for Monday noon from the GFS and tropicaltidbits.com

The Longer Range Forecast:

Our next trough moves into the state late Wednesday (Figure 3). At this time, it looks like a healthy storm (Figure 4), but our mid-week storm from last week looked huge (snow-day worthy) 7 days out, but fizzled to nothing for Colorado.  This is still a week out.  I'll update here as always.

Over the next 5 days, the lower elevations will remain snow-free (Figure 5). The Thursday (possible) storm won't put much snow down along I-25 (Figure 6), but we could get up to 1/2 inch of rain (not shown).

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Figure 3: the 500mb upper air forecast map for Thursday morning from the GFS and tropicaltidbits.com
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Figure 4: the surface precipitation forecast map for Thursday morning from the GFS and tropicaltidbits.com
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Figure 5: the 5 day snowfall total (10:1 ratio) from the GFS and weather5280.com
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Figure 6: the 10 day snowfall total (10:1 ratio) from the GFS and weather5280.com

 


About the Author: John Ensworth

John Ensworth used to work from Longmont as the PI for the NASA through the IGES (The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies). He now teaches technology, algebra, astronomy, meteorology, film school, and Lego robotics to middle/high school.
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