Another warm day before big changes this weekend, a look a the evolviing forecast

03/11/25 8:30am: Another beautiful morning on the front-range and across much of CO (first pic from Westminster this morning). Going to be another warm day. Enjoy the warm weather through Thu before changes arrive Thu night into Fri. It will be much more unsettled and colder this weekend with snow in the mountains from early Fri am through Sun am and some rain/snow showers on the front-range (Den/Bou).

First was very warm yesterday. Denver had a high temp of 72, it was 70 in Boulder and 73 in Colorado Springs for example. Not quite as warm today, but still temps in the upper 60s for the front-range (that will be the case through Thu).

In terms of the weekend storm system, forecast remain on track for the most part but I'm seeing just a few changes.

Models still show the main storm system, a southern track trough / upper-level low impacting the state from 6pm Thu through 6pm Fri favoring southern and western CO with heaviest snowfall.

Then models show a trailing short-wave moving in on colder northwest flow impacting the state from Sat afternoon into Sun morning and that will favor north-central CO with some good snowfall.

For Den/Bou and the front-range, storm track is not favorable for heavy precip, but some rain/snow on Friday. Also still expecting strong wind on the front-range and especially eastern plains on Fri afternoon into Sat am.

Timing: Snow moves back into southwest CO / San Juans after 2pm Thu, with some heavy snow there from about 6pm Thu through 3pm Fri. Then a bit more snow Sat morning through early Sun am (second wave). Totals will be: 12-24" for the San Juans (Telluride, Silverton, WC, etc) and 9-18" for parts of Elks (closer to CB/Aspen), Grand Mesa and Flat Tops.

For the north-central mountains including Routt, Eagle, Summit, Grand, ClearCreek, Gilpin, western Boulder/Larimer counties (and the I-70 mountain corridor) first round of snow expected between 12am-6pm Fri (cold front moves through between 9am-2pm Fri and that is when heaviest snow will be). Southwest flow on the front-side of the trough not great for a ton of snow, but still should be some decent accum as the cold-front moves through. So generally 5-10" for the local ski areas through 6am Sat.

Then for the north-central mountains another round of moderate snow from about 9am Sat through 6am Sun (heaviest Sat night), looks like an additional 3-7" of new snow at the local ski areas, likely favoring areas west of Vail Pass and north of I-70. So overall snow-totals will be around the 8-16" range by Sun am.

For Den/Bou and the front-range a chance for rain showers or maybe a rain/snow mix from about 3am-3pm on Friday. With models showing strong west / northwest flow behind the cold-front it won't be much precp for Den/Bou...so little to no snow accum for the metro area. Maybe Trace-3" for parts of the Palmer Divide and foothills.

It will be turning very windy over the front-range and eastern plains on Fri afternoon with northwest wind-gusts of 40-70 mph (strongest east of DIA).

First image was of the DST sunrise this morning in Westminster. Image 2 shows forecast precip-type/rate and MSLP at 12pm Fri from latest ECMWF. Images 3 and 4 compare forecast total snowfall form now through 6am Sun from latest ECMWF and GFS, has the two waves combined, but takes amounts with grain of salt as details will surely change some.