Wednesday was sunny with highs in the 30s.

On Wednesday night, a batch of clouds moved across the state from west to east. Now on Thursday morning, clouds are lingering. The infrared satellite image below shows the temperature of the clouds (or the ground, where there are no clouds). The bright blue and green colors east of the mountains show colder, higher clouds. The light grey color over western Colorado shows warmer, lower clouds.

All models show that the cloudiness on Thursday morning should dissipate rather quickly, so expect another day of sunny skies and warm temperatures. On Friday, we’ll also see dry and warm weather, though we could have a few more clouds drifting in from the west ahead of our next storm.

The next storm will bring snow to the northern and central mountains on Friday night through the first half of Saturday. I think accumulations will generally be in the 1-3 inch range as the brunt of the storm’s energy will track to the east of Colorado. However, the storm will bring decent moisture and the jet stream will be overhead, so there’s a chance we could get a bit more snow than the models expect.

Saturday night and Sunday morning should be dry.

Then a weak, disorganized, and slow-moving storm should drift over or near Colorado from Sunday midday through about Tuesday. If the storm drifts away from us, most mountains will see little or no snow. If the storm lingers over us, a few mountains could get 6+ inches. I really have no idea what’s going to happen, so I broad-brushed the forecast showing the chance for light snow for all mountains, with a slightly better chance for more significant accumulations in the southern mountains on Sunday into Monday.

The University of Utah ensemble forecast shows the uncertainty in the upcoming pattern. You can see the initial pop with 1-3 inches on Saturday, then … who knows after that!

The weak/disorganized storm of early next week should get out of town by later Tuesday, so I expect dry weather from late Tuesday through Wednesday.

As we’ve talked about for nearly one week, all models are showing a colder and stormier pattern setting up over the western US from March 15-21.

What this means for Colorado is that we will likely see our first shot of precipitation on Thursday, March 15th, with chances for snow continuing through next weekend.

It’s possible that, like the last major storm last weekend, the brunt of the snow from the upcoming pattern stays to our north and west. I am concerned about this. But, at least we have a period of storminess coming up, and also, the temperatures with this weather pattern will not be as cold as the last stormy period, which means we could have a better chance of getting bigger and more productive snowflakes (and therefore a better chance for deeper accumulations).

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

Geography Key

Northern Mountains
Steamboat, Granby, Beaver Creek, Vail, Ski Cooper, Copper, Breckenridge, Keystone, Loveland, Abasin, Winter Park, Berthoud Pass, Eldora, Rocky Mountain National Park, Cameron Pass

Along the Divide
Loveland, Arapahoe Basin, Winter Park, Berthoud Pass

East of the Divide
Eldora, Echo, Rocky Mountain National Park, Cameron Pass

Central Mountains
Aspen, Sunlight, Monarch, Crested Butte, Irwin, Powderhorn

Southern Mountains
Telluride, Silverton – north side of the southern mountains | Purgatory, Wolf Creek – south side of the southern mountains