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Forecast Discussion:
Wednesday 10pm update:
Not much is changing in the forecast, and I've spent the day traveling to a far away city, so let me touch on the highlights for the next few days and I'll be back tomorrow:
A dry cold front comet through later today (Thursday), winds kick up to notable levels, then the temperatures drop further. We'll stay below freezing for the next 36-48 hours. As we warm a bit on Saturday, another system moves in giving us a coating to 1 inch of snow. It is pretty much what we covered yesterday (below...).
End update 10pm Wed.
Christmas Day was very mild and beautiful (unless you only think snow is beautiful on Christmas Day). There IS a big storm gathering in the U.S. southwest (Figure 1). By tonight, the low is in the Oklahoma panhandle with rain and snow is falling in every direction around Longmont, but down slope flow is not allowing much to hit right here. Sheesh! (Figure 2).
By Thursday morning, there are some snow/sleet/ice chances exist around town, but they are not very high chances (Figure 3). Figure 4 shows only about a 20% chance of precipitation from Wednesday (today) through Thursday AM. (Even Estes Park isn't expecting much more than a coating to an inch out of this storm - Figure 5).
The longer range forecast:
We stay very cold for a few days not warming up until Sunday (Figure 4). Another storm moves in for New Year's Eve with low (at this time) chances of snow. Figure 5 shows flurries during the very cold period Thursday-Friday in Estes Park and the next storm, for the New Year, maybe giving them 1-3 inches of snow accumulation. That is a long way out though and much can change before we get there.
