Forecast for the weekend: northwest flow sets up for the mountain, just wind on the front-range

03/19/25 8pm: Hi, getting ready for a little spring break trip with the family to visit my Dad in Tucson so I’ll be out for a few days but Thomas Horner will have you covered and you know he brings the weather lol…at least for the mountains this time. Wanted to mention the forecast for the weekend because it looks active in terms of snowfall for the mountains before a big warm-up for next week.

I see a nice northwest flow pattern setting up with several waves moving over CO from Thu pm through Sun am. This will bring rounds of snow to the mountains and mostly wind to Den/Bou and the front-range (too much downslope flow with the northwest flow aloft: I know it's been rough for the front-range, but common during La Nina which is still in place).

First it will be turning windy over much of CO (including both the front-range and north-central mountains) from 12pm-8pm Thu. Strongest winds will be in/near the Cont. Divide, especially just east of the Divide (Front Range mountains) with some gusts of 40-70mph in spots. For Den/Bou and the front-range wind-gusts of 20-40mph in the afternoon. It will continue to be windy in spots on Fri as well.

Then northwest flow with rounds of snow for the mountains and mostly wind for the front-range. Here is the outlook:

For the north-central mountains / I-70 mountain corridor

• First wave from 3pm Thu to 6am Fri: Trace-3” in spots

• Second more substantial wave from 3am Sat to 3am Sun: 6-12” additional for the ski areas, favoring areas north of I-70 (Steamboat, Flat Tops, Winter Park, IPW, RMNP, etc)

For Den/Bou/Ft.Collins, foothills and the front-range:

• A chance for a few rain/snow showers from 6pm Sat to 6am Sun: 0-1” of snow, best chances on the Palmer Divide, otherwise turning very windy along the front-range from Sat evening with westerly wind-gusts of 30-60mph (strongest in the foothills)

Looking ahead the weather pattern dries out and warms up after Sunday…could get really warm again (I’ll be bringing back some of that AZ heat). Models show a big ridge of high pressure from basically March 23rd-28th, could change but it looks hot for the end of March.

That's all for now, we leave early tomorrow (maybe will post some snow totals), otherwise Thomas will be forecasting for you.

First image loop shows forecast precip-type/rate from now through Sun afternoon. Image two shows forecast wind-gusts tomorrow at 5pm from latest HRRR. Third image shows forecast total snowfall for the Thu/Fri wave from now through 12pm Fri from latest HRRR. Fourth image shows forecast total snowfall form now through 6am Sun from latest ECMWF model, both waves combined, take amounts with grain of salt (might be underdoing it in spots with the northwest flow).