Colorado Daily Snow

Heads up, there may be fresher snow! Read the latest Colorado Daily Snow

By Joel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist Posted 6 years ago September 11, 2017

Legitimate chance for high elevation snow this weekend

Update

While most of the weather world is focused on coverage of former Hurricane Irma, across the west, most of us are also looking ahead to the first autumn cold front and chance for high elevation snow.

Most models now show that our first cold front and chance for snow will happen over the weekend on September 16th (ish) and also that we might have a second storm around September 21st.

Right now

Radar imagery across the US is dominated by the remains of Irma over the southeast. Here in Colorado, you can see the remains of a few rain storms that popped up later on Sunday, Sep 10th.

Two chances for snow

After a warm start to September, it appears that we'll start a cooling trend later this week. The map below shows temperatures compared to the average for September 14-21st. Blue is cooler than average. The coldest air will stay to our northwest, though it will creep into Colorado as well.

Along with the cooler air, there will be two chances for snow during the upcoming 10 days.

The first chance for snow will be around Saturday, September 16th. The bulk of the snow should stay to our northwest, but it's likely that Colorado will get some flakes, mostly over 11,000 feet (ish).

The really good news about the storm over the weekend is that before hitting Colorado, it should drop precipitation over the northwest and the northern Rockies, which could help squash some of the ongoing fires in those areas.

The potential negative part of the storm on Saturday is that it will increase winds over Colorado, and this could increase our fire danger. The fall season is a sneaky fire season here in Colorado as the winds can start to increase, which can lead to quickly spreading fires. Be very careful with any camp fires that you start on Friday or Saturday, and even better, think about not having any camp fires – in my mind, it's just not worth the risk of burning down a forest.

Following this weekend's storm, there is a pretty good chance that we'll see another cool storm around September 21st. That's too far away for details, but my guess is that the highest peaks will again see flakes.

Hurricanes and snow

After 12 years of luck with no major (Cat 3, 4, 5) hurricanes making landfall in the US, it's unfortunate that Harvey and Irma both struck as major storms. My family lives in South Florida, so watching Irma strike that area hit close to home. Hoping for a speedy recovery.

While watching Irma's trek through the Atlantic last week, I noticed a tweet from a hurricane researcher and thought that this analysis might help us to shed some light on snowfall in the coming months. Here's the story.

http://opensnow.com/news/post/can-hurricane-irma-help-predict-2017-2018-snowfall

Next update

Check back on Wednesday for a closer look at the potential snow this weekend!

Thanks for reading!

JOEL GRATZ

About Our Forecaster

Joel Gratz

Founding Meteorologist

Joel Gratz is the Founding Meteorologist of OpenSnow and has lived in Boulder, Colorado since 2003. Before moving to Colorado, he spent his childhood as a (not very fast) ski racer in eastern Pennsylvania.

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