Summary:

Dry with high clouds on Thursday and Friday, and oh yeah, Abasin opens on Friday(!). A few showers for southern Colorado on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, then most of the state should see scattered showers of rain and snow next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Details:

On Wednesday morning I wrote that temperatures for snowmaking would not be very good for the next 5-7 days. Then, of course, on Wednesday afternoon I received a press release that Abasin intends to open on Friday. So much for my knowledge of snowmaking! I was surprised that Abasin could open after only having a few nights of cool weather conducive to making snow, but kudos to them!

Our upcoming weather on Thursday and Friday will be similar to Wednesday as the atmosphere will be dry with only high cirrus clouds moving across the state from time to time.

On Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, additional moisture will be lifted into Colorado from the south, so look for scattered afternoon showers over the southern third to half of the state, mostly over the San Juan and Sangre de Cristo mountains.

Then on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, a piece of the storminess over the Pacific Ocean will break off and move into the western US. This energy may cut off from the main flow of weather and spin to our south, so the forecast is definitely not set in stone. That said, most of the weather models agree that the entire state will see rain showers (high-elevation snow) on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the most precipitation over the southern third of Colorado.

^{Precipitation forecast from the Canadian weather model. Source: Weatherbell.com}

Late next week and weekend (roughly October 23-26) should return to dry weather, and then the last few days of the month could be stormy once again as another wave of energy pushes east from the Pacific Ocean.

JOEL GRATZ