It's Wednesday and I know you hate to read long-winded commentary on hump day. So I'll try to make this a brief...

+ Wed PM & Thu: a few inches of snow, warm

+ Thur PM & Fri: snow showers, not much accumulation

+ Sat PM & Sun AM: very cold air and a moderate snow storm (3-5 inches +/-)

The first storm coming in Wednesday night and Thursday is loaded with moisture but there will not be much cold air or energy to lift the moisture and convert it to snow. This is why I'm only forecasting a few inches, mostly from late Wednesday night through the first half of Thursday. However, and this is a BIG however, when the atmosphere is loaded with moisture, funny things can happen and it doesn't take much for a few inches to turn into six inches. I don't think that will happen for 95% of Colorado, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a higher report come in by later on Thursday.

Friday and Friday night are "tweener" time periods where we'll have plenty of moisture but almost no storm energy to lift the moisture, so I expect just a few snow showers. At this point we're in between storms.

The main storm will arrive Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning and drop in from the northwest with VERY cold air and a good shot of snow. The snow won't last long, but most locations will wake up to fresh snow on the ground and snow continuing to fall on Sunday morning. Steamboat in the north will see the snow first starting late Saturday afternoon and winding down by Sunday morning. Areas along I-70 and down to central Colorado should see the snow start by midnight-ish Saturday night and the snow will wind down to snow showers by mid morning on Sunday. The San Juans in the south should also see snow Sunday morning but I think amounts will be lower. There's also a small upslope component to this storm that will bring snow to the foothills and mountains east of the divide, so expect a few inches there as well. Remember that I make exact snowfall predictions for each mountain out to five days on the Colorado page and we have snow predictions for all mountains in the US on the other state pages. If you just want to see predictions and reports for your favorite mountains, create your own personalized page of favorites.

Sunday will be a nice morning to ski and ride with fresh snow, but dress warm as temperatures could stay in the single digits most of the day.

The pattern change that I've been talking about is coming and this weekend's storm is the start of this change. Remember that a better pattern does NOT guarantee us snow storms but it does make it much more likely for them to happen. I do see another shot of snow and cold air next Tuesday and then a few more storms after that, coming every few days. I also see a hint that this new pattern will shift into a slightly more favorable position for us, but I'll tease you for now and talk more about that tomorrow.

If I see changes for the weekend storm I'll post updates above through the day.

JOEL GRATZ