Big temperature change compared to yesterday and a look at the forecast for the Wed/Thu storm

02/04/25 8am: Good morning, chilly out there along the front-range after yesterday's cold front...its about 40 degs colder at my house this morning compared to yesterday morning: currently 20 degs and it was 60 this time yesterday (similar in Denver). In fact downtown Denver had a high of 70 and a low of 22. In Boulder yesterday it went from 72 degs to 40 degs between 2pm-4pm (as you can see on the second image below).

It was also very warm in the mountains / western CO yesterday. For example Aspen had a high of 61, it was 65 in Crestone and 74 in Canyon City. Grand Junction set a record high-temp of 71.

Anyway its currently socked in with low clouds and fog on the front-range / eastern plains with some partly-cloudy and relatively warmer conditions in the mountains. Should warm up nicely on the front-range this afternoon and then much warmer again for Den/Bou tomorrow with temps back in the 60s.

Then just a little bit of snow for the northern mountains primarily from 5pm Wed to 8am Thu. Not going to be much snow for most of the mountains: 1/2" to 3" for the local ski areas, favoring areas near the Cont. Divide (eastern Summit, western ClearCreek southern Grand counties). Highest amounts will be in parts of the Park Range (from Steamboat ski north) and also in the Medicine Bow Range (Cameron Pass to RMNP) those areas may pick up 2-5" in a few spots above 10k ft.

It will be windy over the Front Range mountains today (westerly wind-gusts of 30-50mph). But then especially windy tomorrow with more strong westerly winds of 40-80 mph (a bit less windy west of the Cont. Divide with gusts of 20-50 mph over the next two days).

For Den/Bou and the front-range turning warm and windy again as this little short-wave passes over northern CO. Turning very windy over the front-range tomorrow between 8am-5pm with westerly wind-gusts of 30-60mph for lower elevations, the foothills west of Den/Bou/Ft.Collins above 8k ft can expect wind-gusts of 70-90mph again tomorrow mid-day, especially between 8am-12pm, so heads up there.

Looking ahead, still tracking more snow and a cold-front for Fri into Sat, but its looking even weaker than models showed yesterday, more on that later.

First image is latest surface map over CO showing current temps, dewpt, wind-speed and precip. Second image is the observed temperature graph from my work: NCAR in Boulder, showing the strong cold-front yesterday. Third image shows forecast wind-gusts at 10am tomorrow morning from latest HRRR model. Images 4 and 5 compare forecast total snowfall from now through 8am Thu from latest NWS Blend of Models and GFS, take modeled snow amounts with grain of salt.