A look at the forecast for the rest of week and towards Memorial Day (turning unsettled)

05/20/25 8:30am: Cool and windy out there this morning behind yesterday's short-wave. Temps are currently in the 40s/50s along the front-range with only 20s/30s in the mountains and its windy.

Wind will be the story at times over the next couple days along with a warm up for the first part of the weekend (through Fri)...but then things are starting to look interesting for Memorial Day weekend:

Some of the models are now showing a slow moving short-wave and cold-front that will bring some rain and more unsettled conditions to the front-range (Den/Bou) and adjacent mountains from Sat afternoon through Sun afternoon (the weather on Sun doesn't look great, so heads up there, could be rainy)

First good to see some more rain across parts of southern / eastern CO yesterday. Here are some notable rain reports from CoCoRaHS:

Colorado City 1.6 W (south of Pueblo): 1.05"
Cheyenne Wells 1.6 N (souheast CO): 1.02"
Rye 2.0 ESE: 0.74"
Las Animas 7.5 ENE: 0.56"
Colorado Springs 5.0 ENE: 0.53"
Trinidad 1.9 ENE: 0.53"
Parker 9.3 ENE: 0.28"
Bennett 10.8 SSW: 0.28"

Also good to see just a bit of snow across parts of the mountains. For the north-central mountains just Trace-2" in a few spots (mostly over IPW and up towards Cameron Passs). Also 1-3" for parts of the San Juans and Elks yesterday.

Looking ahead, initially some stronger wind today: Gust of up to 60 mph in the Front Range mountains and foothills above 9k ft through 12pm today. Then some moderately strong winds for the northern front-range (Den/Bou) from 10am-10pm today: northwest wind-gusts of 20-40mph

For tomorrow, as a little short-wave passes north of CO another round of strong wind expected for the north-central mountains / front-range mountains from 9am-9pm: westerly wind-gusts of 40-60 mph again.

For Den/Bou and the front-range turning windy tomorrow afternoon: 11am-8pm Wed, westerly wind-gusts of 20-40 mph again (strongest in/near the foothills)

Less wind and turning warm for Thu and Fri (and the first part of Sat). High temps will be getting back to near 80 degs for Den/Bou on Thu, Fri and Sat.

Then the weather gets interesting depending on what model you look at. Some of the models show a slow moving short-wave impacting the state from Sat night through Sun night along with a couple cold fronts.

ECMWF which is the most accurate 3-5 days out, shows an initial cold-front moving down the front-range on Sat afternoon and that will kick off a round of rain showers and thunderstorms over parts of the northern front-range and northeast CO mostly after 2pm on Sat: so a few storms in spots for Den/Bou on Sat afternoon / evening, best chances over northeast CO)

For the north-central mountains, also looks like rain/snow showers are possible from 12pm-8pm on Sat, best chances along/north of I-70.

Then as the main short-wave moves through, according to ECMWF, a stronger cold-front moves down the front-range Sun morning and that will bring in cooler and cloudier conditions. Den/Bou and the front-range may have a good chance for rain from about 11am-11pm on Sun, could be wet and chilly in spots Sun afternoon.

For the mountains, most of the rain/snow on Sunday will likely be along/east of the Cont. Divide but its hard to say.

Looking way out to Monday, likely a bit better weather but still unsettled and a bit cooler, best chances for rain on Sun maybe over the southern front-range (as that cold-front sags south).

High uncertainty in the details for Sat-Mon but you can see we will be dealing with some weather (May in Colorado lol)

First image loop shows forecast wind-gusts over the next 48hrs (6am this morning through 6am Thu) from latest HRRR model. Second image is near current view from A-Basin this morning: cloudy and chilly up there. Image 3 shows 24hr rain reports from CoCoRaHS across southern CO. Fourth image shows the potentially rainy conditions along the front-range on Sun at 3pm from latest ECMWF.