Forecast for the weekend on track: two waves of snow coming. More snow next week

02/06/25 9am: Morning. Just a little bit of snow from yesterday's weak wave, with NOHRSC showing 1/2" to 2" over parts of the northern front-range mountains: IPW, RMNP and up towards Cameron Pass, otherwise not much for the ski areas.

Anyway, forecast for the weekend is on track for two waves of snow: A strong cold-front expected to move across on Fri night into Sat am and then more orographic snow from late Sat night through Sun night (cold smoke should start to pike up in the mountains).

For the north-central mountains first round of snow from 8pm Fri to 8am Sat: 3-7" of new snow for the ski areas (cold front moves through around midnight). Then more snow from 11pm Sat to 11am Sun: additional 2-6" seems likely. Highest amounts likely west of Vail Pass and closer to Steamboat, secondarily near Winter Park. So totals of 6-12"+ by Sun mid-day.

For Den/Bou a chance for rain/snow showers late tomorrow night into Sat am then a better chance for some light snow 11pm Sat to 11am Sun: Trace-2" possible by Sun am, with higher amounts (of up to 3-4" in the foothills). Likely not much on Sat am. Turning colder for Sat and Sun.

It will also be turning very windy again across much of the state on Fri ahead of the strong cold-front. Especialy windy over parts of the north-central / front-range mountains from 8am-8pm tomorrow with westerly wind-gusts of 40-80 mph (strongest along/east of the Cont. Divide: Front Range mountains).

Also will be turning windy over the front-range (Den/Bou and foothills) tomorrow afternoon with westerly wind-gusts of 30-50mph.

Looking ahead, a better chance for snow and a stronger cold-front expected for the front-range (Den/Bou) from about 5pm Mon to 8am Tue (02/10-02/11) and that wave could bring 2-5" for Den/Bou with even more in the foothills, but uncertainty is high.

More snow for the mountains as well Mon night into Tue with several more inches.

Overall looking cold and snowy next week, so heads up there! Thats all for now. I'll be putting out a snowfall forecast map for the weekend, tonight.

First image shows 48hr observed snowfall from NOHRSC (just a tad in spots). Second image shows forecast wind-gusts at 11am tomorrow from latest HRRR. Images 3-5 compare forecast total snowfall from now through 5am Mon (two waves combined) from latest ECMWF, GFS and NWS Blend of Models...take modeled snow amounts with big grain of salt but you can see its going to start to pile up by Mon am...with more coming next week.