A look ahead at the next set of storm systems and forecast into next week

12/30/24 8pm: Hi, hope you are having a cozy Mon evening. Glad the wind wasn't too bad today (and nice and calm now). Wind reports show some gusts of 70-80 mph in/near the front-range foothills and across parts of the north-central mountains today. Boulder had a wind-gust to 77mph, but overall not too bad.

Anyway, lets take a look ahead at the next set of storm systems coming up. Overall theme: northwest flow, favoring northern CO (with a break Fri/Sat).

Next round of snow expected for the north-central mountains primarily from: 11am Wed to 11am Thu, generally 4-8” of new snow for the local ski areas / I-70 mountain corridor and mountain passes, with highest amounts west of Vail Pass (a few spots in Gore, northern Sawatch or near/north of Steamboat in Park range could get up to 12” in spots with the northwest flow).

Looking ahead, quick warm up for Fri and Sat with a ridge of high pressure moving through. Warm, sunny and breezy in spots before clouds and cooler air moves back into the mountains by Sat evening.

Next storm system(s) slated to impact the state from Sun-Tue (01/05 to 01/07)...models show cold northwest flow favoring northern / north-central CO. Likely two waves and could pile up in spots (6-12” likely again for the local ski areas but details are uncertain).

Unfortunately with the persistent northwest downslope flow, looks dry for the front-range (Den/Bou) for that Sun-Tue set of storms... maybe a few snow showers in spots, turning colder (and windier) along the front-range by Mon/Tue (01/06-01/07)

First image shows the next short-wave at 11pm Wed from latest GFS model. Image 2 and 3 compare 24hr total snowfall ending 11am Thu from latest 18z GFS and ECMWF models, take snow amounts with grain of salt, just gives general idea for that Wed/Thu wave.

Happy to see the northwest flow setup. Thoughts? (we know Scott is not happy lol 🙂 )