A look ahead at an active weather pattern in early to mid-Feb

01/30/25 8:30pm: Interesting weather pattern shaping up for early to mid-February with likely a much more active and colder pattern from around Feb 5th-15th with several storm systems possible (and some breaks in-between).

Prior to this CO will be right on the southern edge of the jet-stream this weekend, which will bring some on/off light snow to the north-central mountains from Sat am through Sun pm. Then a warm ridge of high pressure for Mon-Tue before snow moves back into the mountains by Wed, Feb5th

First a tricky snowfall forecast for Sat into Sun...it now appears some light snow moves into the northern mountains (closer to Steamboat) after 5am Sat then spread into the north-central mountains / I-70 mountain corridor after 9am Sat, generally light amounts through the day, Trace-2" at ski areas, except near Steamboat / FlatTops could get 1-4" on Sat.

Also will be quite windy over much of the mountains on Saturday with westerly wind-gusts of 30-60 mph, strongest over the Front Range mountains along/east of the Cont. Divide.

Then a better chance for snow in the mountains from 5pm Sat through 5pm Sun: 1-4" for the ski areas, with highest amounts west of Vail Pass (up to 8" near Flattops and Park Range)

For Den/Bou and the front-range warm and windy on Sat into Sun (more clouds on Sun) but overall quite nice and warm with temps near 60. Warmest weather will move for Mon-Wed with high temps in mid-60s

Then attention turns to more of a pattern shift around Feb 5th. Snow moves back into the north-central mountains after 12pm Wed, then as main storm system moves through, heavy snow expected from late Wed night through Fri pm, and it could be quite deep in spots by Fri/Sat (6th/7th), maybe > 12" at many of the ski areas but uncertainty is high.

Also Den/Bou and the front-range will have a chance for a stronger cold-front and some snow around next Thu into Fri (6th/7th) but uncertainty is high, could be several inches in spots, favoring the northern front-range.

Then maybe a break in the weather around Feb 8th-9th, before another set of storm systems arrive around Feb 10th-14th... so could be quite snowy and active especially for the mountains, fingers crossed for deep pow! 🙂

First image loops shows the evolution of the wx pattern via precip-type/rate MSLP and thickness. Image 2 shows forecast total snowfall from now through 11am Sat from latest HRRR, second image shows forecast total snowfall through 11am Sun from latest GFS and third image shows total snowfall through 11am Fri, Feb 7th...take modeled snowfall amounts with big grain of salt, especially the last image (through next week) as uncertainty is high and the numbers will certainly change (although ECMWF was showing a similar scenario Wed-Fri next week).