A look ahead at the potentially active weather pattern from April 17-22

04/13/25 8pm: After this little storm system, focus shifts to a potentially impactful storm next weekend as models show a northern branch low phasing in with the southern Pacific jet-stream with potentially a large upper level low developing west of CO by next Friday....all going to depend on how far east/west this low develops and exactly how this complex pattern evolves.

The current storm system clears out Mon am then dry and warm again from Mon afternoon through Tue night. Rain/snow moves back into the mountains by Wed am

Then impacts from the larger storm system expected from 3pm Thu through 9am Sat (with biggest impacts on Fri (04/18)).

With the low dropping in and strengthen to our west, this will likely produce a nice, cold upslope event along the front-range (including Den/Bou, Ft. Colins, Springs, etc) from about 12am Fri to 12am Sat and with the expected stronger cold-front, all snow for a good portion of the event and likely some accumulating snow for lower elevations (could be > 3" in spots, foothills may get > 6" in spots).

The north-central mountains will also get a good shot of snow from Thu afternoon into Sat mid-morning, but the east to west flow may not be conducive for very heavy amounts, except for east of Divide....but still likely a good 5-12" at the ski areas / higher terrain favoring the front-range mountains. Uncertainty is high (could be more in spots or less).

Beyond Sat, it continues to look active with a large trough pattern in place and a kicker wave impacting CO on Sat into Sun...that storm may have bigger impacts in southern CO but also looks like another shot of upslope again for the front-range (Pueblo/Springs, Den/Bou, etc)

Then possibly another cold, northwest flow storm system for next Mon into Tue (04/21-04/22) with much more snow for the north-central mountains, but that is a ways out.

Bottom line is it looks like very active / wet weather from 04/17 through 04/22....get ready, we riding some April pow 🙂

First image shows forecast precip-type/rate, mslp at 6am Fri (04/18 from latest ECMWF. Images 2 and 3 show the depiction of the upper-level low on Fri from ECMWF and GFS, both showing a large storm system but devil is in the details...stay tuned.