Summary
A quick surge of moisture will bring showers to Colorado’s mountains and eastern plains on Wednesday and Wednesday night. Then the moisture will shift east, leaving us with dry weather from Thursday through Sunday. Early next week, a few showers could return.
Short Term Forecast
The most interesting weather image on Wednesday is the water vapor satellite loop, which depicts a plume of moisture surging northward from Mexico to Colorado. The plume is shown by the grey and blue colors.
On Wednesday, this one-day moisture surge will bring clouds, cooler temperatures, and showers to Colorado. The showers will likely continue through Wednesday night as the moisture will not push east of Colorado until early on Thursday.
Once the moisture moves east, then we’ll be back to dry weather on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Extended Forecast
Temperatures for the next five days (Sep 19-23) will be warmer than average over Colorado, while cool weather (and additional snow) holds over western Canada.
For the next five days (Sep 24-28), a storm will bring light snow and autumn-like temperatures to the Northern Rockies, Colorado's far northern mountains, and Colorado's eastern plains.
This means that next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday could all have a few showers, mostly over the northern and eastern mountains and plains. Unfortunately, this storm will be on the drier side and the majority of its energy will stay to the north of Colorado, so it will not be an impactful system for us.
After the storm early next week, the final few days of September and early October will be warm over western Colorado and cool over eastern Colorado.
With the pattern shown above for the 10-15 day forecast, it likely means that any storms would slide down the east side of the Rockies on their way into the eastern United States. That would leave Colorado mostly dry, with the best chance for any rain/snow and cooler temperatures near and east of the mountains.
The 15-day snowfall outlook, which is the average of 51 model versions, agrees that the best chance for snow will be near and east of the continental divide.
In short, the long-range forecast is for more of the same warm and dry weather that we’ve seen for the last two weeks, with the exception of a brief cool shot and some showers early next week.
Thanks for reading … next update on Friday, September 21!
JOEL GRATZ
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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
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