Good Wednesday morning!

Fun with satellite

I don't have any snow to report today, but I do want to share a fun satellite animation that covers 1 hour from about 8-9am on Wednesday, August 23.

A weak surge of moisture is currently pushing from south-to-north across Colorado (hence the lingering clouds over northern Colorado).

As this surge moved across Colorado later on Tuesday, it dropped some rain, especially over the southern and central parts of the state.

Then, when the skies cleared on Tuesday night, the atmosphere was in a favorable setup for fog with moisture near the ground and clear skies above to allow temperatures to cool.

In the image above, you can see the fog as the stationary white areas in southern/central Colorado. There appears to be some fog east of Crested Butte and a large area in the eastern San Juans as well.

Healthy moisture

This map shows the amount of precipitation compared to the average from October 1, 2016, through August 23, 2017. Nearly ever river basin is at or above average.

This is wonderful news. The western US can often be an arid place, and we'll take every drop and flake of precipitation that we can get!

Temperature forecast through the end of August

It'll be a tale of two halves as western Colorado warms up while eastern Colorado cools down.

This is the 15-day temperature forecast for Grand Junction in western Colorado, showing cooler-than-average temperatures now (on the left side), warming to above average toward the end of August into early September.

Below is the same graphic but for the Denver area in eastern Colorado. Temperatures are projected to stay below average.

If this weather pattern occurred during the winter months, we'd be talking about a LOT of snow for the front-range mountains like Eldora, Rocky Mountain National Park, and the Indian Peaks.

Next update

I'll be back again on Friday unless our future kiddo decides to arrive on his scheduled due date. If that happens, I'll have to hand it to the doctors for an incredibly accurate 9-month forecast:-)

JOEL GRATZ