A look at the Wed to Fri storm system (really two waves)

05/12/25 8:15am: Morning, its Monday. Lets take a look at some details for the next storm system slated to impact the state from Wed afternoon through Fri morning. Forecast is changing some as models show a double-barreled system, really two waves impacting the state. First wave expected from 12pm Wed through 3am Thu and a second wave from 3pm Thu through 9am Fri: Some snow for the north-central mountains a chance for thunderstorms on the front-range / eastern plains.

• Hot again today and tomorrow, high temps near/above 90 for Den/Bou today, highs in the 80s tomorrow, turning breezy tomorrow

• A cold-front will sweep across the state on Wed afternoon

• On Wed rain/snow showers move back into the mountains by 12pm, with showers through 3am Thu. For the north-central mountains some light snow accum on Wed night into Thu morning above 9500ft: Trace-3" in a few spots.

• For Den/Bou Wed will start out warm, then as the cold-front moves through a chance for some rain showers and stronger thunderstorms in spots from 3pm-9pm Wed. Best chances for stronger storms will be from Longmont / Loveland areas north and east (I circled the area on the second image below)

• On Thu some on/off rain and snow showers over the central mountains. For the north-central mountains another round of snow (mostly above 9k ft) from 3pm Thu through 6am Fri: again 1-4" of snow in spots, mostly near the Cont. Divide above 9500ft. I circled the map that has best chances for accumulating snow Wed afternoon to Fri morning

• For Den/Bou and the front-range on Thu likely a better chance for afternoon scattered rain showers and weak thunderstorms from 2pm-9pm, best chances in/near the foothills

• In term of wind: it will be turning quite windy over much of the state for Wed and Thu (especially in the afternoons): wind-gusts of 30-60mph in spots (strongest over the Front Range mountains and foothills)

• Then nice weather (a break in the action) for Fri and Sat, warming back up.

• Then another storm system will impact the state from Sun afternoon (05/18) to Tue morning (05/20)

  
  

First image loops shows the next storm system, really two waves from Tue through Fri via 500mb vorticity / wind. Images 2 and 3 compare forecast liquid precip from now through 6am Fri from latest ECMWF and GFS models, I circled biggest impacts on the second image, take amounts with grain of salt (some of the precip will be snow in the mountains).