Chilly Thursday for Denver; light snow for the northern mountains

Sunny skies returned to Denver today under light winds, but temperatures remained chilly, only topping out in the low 30's (15 degrees below average for late Feb).  Temperatures are already well into the teens as of 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night, so many parts of the metro area will likely see low temperatures dip into the single digits overnight.  Meanwhile, many areas in the mountains enjoyed fresh snow, including big totals for a couple of areas.  Powderhorn (located on the Grand Mesa) was the big winner, picking up 19" of new snow!  Steamboat also enjoyed an excellent powder day, with 10" on their morning snow report.  Other areas with solid snow totals as of their 6 am reports include Monarch (7"), Telluride (6"), Vail (6"), and Winter Park (6").

Another weak system will move into Colorado tomorrow, bringing a northwesterly flow and favoring the northern mountains with light to moderate snow through Friday (Steamboat likely to do the best, while the Front Range and Vail/Summit County could be decent as well).  Very windy conditions are also going to rake the Front Range mountains and northern Continental Divide on Thursday and Friday.  Clouds will increase in Denver tomorrow, but it will stay dry and cool with highs once again only reaching the 30's.  Clouds should help moderate Thursday night's lows, which should bottom out around 20 in the city (closer to 15 in the foothills and eastern plains).


Warmer, drier weather to arrive this weekend; next storm arrives Monday

A ridge of high pressure will move into Colorado on Saturday, pushing out any remaining snow showers in the northern mountains, and bringing milder temperatures, although the warm-up won't be as significant as previously expected.  High temperatures on Saturday will reach the upper 40's to near 50 in Denver (near average), and reach the mid 50's on Sunday, although clouds will be on the increase ahead of the next system.  The weekend warm-up will be brief, but combined with the higher sun angle of early March, will be enough to melt a lot of the snow that fell in Denver last weekend.

On Monday, a weak to moderate storm system will affect Colorado, likely favoring the northern mountains for snow again.  Temperatures will cool off in Denver as a cold front associated with the system moves through on Monday, but as of right now (keep in mind, though, this is several days out), it doesn't look like Denver will see much if any snow.  Looking long range, warmer and drier weather will move into Colorado by mid week, before the next storm system approaches on Thursday, March 6.