Summary:

Mostly sunny and warm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday with a low chance for a few mountain showers each afternoon. More numerous rain showers are likely on Friday, then the weekend might be drier but I have little confidence in the forecast beyond 4 days.

Details:

Yesterday, Sunday, was typical of a late-summer day with a few showers over the mountains but little rain reaching the ground due to pretty dry air at the surface. On Sunday night, a cold front brought cooler air to the plains east of the divide, but the low clouds are confined to the farmland well east of I-25 and did not push further west into the urban areas and against the foothills.

Monday through Thursday will be similar to Sunday with enough moisture over the mountains to form afternoon clouds and a few showers, but still dry enough at the surface that the storms will produce more wind than rain. Temperatures will be a few degrees above normal each day.

Things change on Friday, though, as the combination of the remnants of Hurricane Odile and a weak storm along the west coast will push moisture into Colorado. Look for lots of showers and a few thunderstorms between Thursday night and Friday night, mostly over the mountains but perhaps affecting the eastern plains as well.

^{Both storms will pull moisture into Colorado on Friday. Source: Weatherbell.com}

After Friday, I have little confidence in the forecast for the weekend and into early next week.

The remnants of Hurricane Odile will be gone to our east, however the storm to our west that is cut-off from the main west-to-east flow of weather will meander about. These cut-off storms usually move more slowly and erratically than the models forecast, so it could stay near us through the weekend and into early next week. If it moves a bit closer to Colorado, we could see showers each day of the weekend through next Tuesday. If it stays just a bit further away, we'll see a drier weekend. At this point, I have no clue about the details and feel that I cannot give the "all clear" for the weekend because this storm will be too close for comfort. Stay tuned...

JOEL GRATZ

PS - For folks in the Denver area, check out the "First Frost" event on Friday, November 7th. It's a gathering to benefit CAIC and there's also a photo contest for those of you who do a great job of capturing images that define skiing and riding in Colorado. More information here.