DENVER: Snow Totals and Forecast to Warmer Times Ahead

Well, Wednesday ended up being a rather snowy day. There were snow and flurries falling for the majority of the day but not much accumulation came from this. That was expected.

A Clear Sunset Over Denver 

Denver ended up with 0.6" of snow accumulation on Wednesday and got only 0.10" of snow on Monday and a trace of snow on Tuesday, but with some kind of measurable snow happening on the last three days, it puts us at seeing snow falling and accumulating on 12 of 19 days this February.

Denver's Monthly Weather Data 

So here's an easy way to view what I am talking about. Highlighted was our most recent snow from yesterday. Currently, Denver has received 16.5" of snow. This puts us in the 11th place ranking for the snowiest February's on record. If we end up getting 3 more inches of snow before the end of the month, we will be in the top 5 most snow February's.

and with that,

FORECAST

Between now and Saturday, we will have clear skies and wondering temperatures. Thursday is going to stay chilly with highs in the 30s but Friday and Saturday we will be sufficiently within the 50s (and possibly could even get up to the lower 60s!!). Of course, it won't last long because by Sunday, we see another big cool down which looks to last for the better part of next week. 

Daily high and low temperatures for Denver over the next 9 days 

Hey, the one good thing from the image above, our average temperatures are rising! By the end of the month, our average high will be 50º. That's some good news, right? 

So, with the dips in temperatures that you can see, will come some unsettled weather. The first disturbance is a cut-off low that will be moving in from the southwest. Storms that come from this direction will typically bring a decent amount of snow to the San Juan mountains but some of these also bring the Front Range and Eastern Plains some rather impressive snows. The setup right now looks to be a good setup for some snow and windy conditions to impact us. This will start, possibly as early as Saturday night, but mainly occur through the day on Sunday and into Monday morning. As of right now, some models are suggesting 3-6 inches of snow for the Denver area with possible blizzard-like conditions for the Eastern Plains. 

This will be worked out soon but prepare for some accumulation and a tricky start to next work week. 

The next storm will move in from the Northwest and this has the potential to bring another couple of inches to Denver for the Monday to Tuesday timeframe. This setup up is similar to a lot of the storms we've seen this year, so there will be a burst of cold followed by some snow that has a little bit of an upslope component to it. 

Snow chances in the next 5 days

Here is a look at the Euro models and what all of its members, think of members as in individual forecasts within a parent forecast, the members each put out there own idea of how much will fall and when you average them together, you get the output the main model. 

For storm #1, again, the output is for 2-5" of snow to fall. Some of the members are throwing out 5, 6, 7 inch amounts but generally, it's within 2-5" 

Storm #2, this one has some funky outliers, I'd go with the range of 1-3" but some of the outputs are suggesting 4-6 inches...so, we will see how these iron out in the coming days. 

6-10 Day Outlook for Temperature and Precipitation 

Between February 25-29, there is a high chance of seeing below normal temperatures for this period and a decent chance of seeing above-normal precipitation for the period. Essentially, even the CPC is noticing that the next 10 days will be active and colder than normal. 

I'll get you updated with the upcoming storms but just prepare for another round of snowy weather and cooler weather. 

~Rain or Shine

  I'm Andy Stein