State of the Atmosphere
Will we see a storm this week? Google boasts "state-of-the-art" AI weather model
To start the week, more of the same... changes by Wednesday All has been relatively quiet along the front range since last weekend's snowstorm . Other than beautiful sunrises and beautiful sunsets due to a strong jet stream overhead, we haven't had a whole lot to talk about. Some of the photos shared with us last week, however, were stunning! > Su
State of the Atmosphere
The State of the Atmosphere: Monday, October 16, 2023
There's been some weather here and there, but overall, our transition to Fall across Colorado has been... lackluster to say the least. We've been warm and dry. That's largely been a product of the summer ridge over The Rockies refusing to quit. Data on temperature and moisture across Colorado in the short stint of Fall thus far: With much of the state running much drier than average: Most of the Urban Corridor and much of the mountains (including major ski resorts) are dealing with below av
denver weather
Denver Weather: Taste of fall weather as temperatures drop more than 20 degrees this week
There's a temperature drop on the way to much of Colorado this week, and for Denver we will go from the 80s Monday to the 60s Tuesday through the end of the week. Parts of the area could have their first frost of the season. What's driving this cool off? A strong trough over the West will head toward Wyoming and be a glancing blow to Colorado, with cooler temperatures and some showers. This animation shows the progression of that trough (blue shades). Although there will be isolated to scatter
State of the Atmosphere
Colorado weather: Where's the snow and cold?
Fall is in the air... as my family and I camped this weekend we woke up to frost and noticed the changing aspen leaves. So, where's the cold and snow? Some of our peaks caught snow this past week and will have a few flakes again this week but by-in-large we are not seeing significant snow as we draw to a close on this September. The main driver of the weather this week will be a strong low-pressure area sitting over the Northeast Pacific Ocean. This will draw lots of moisture in over the Pacifi
State of the Atmosphere
The State of the Atmosphere: Monday, September 18th, 2023
Month to date temperature anomalies across the CONUS resemble the prior months in so many ways. Texas remains hot. A split bag through the middle tier. New England has also been quite warm over recent weeks. The last 7 days of course have been a bit different, with fall-like weather across the region much of last week, with below average temperatures for the central plains and extending up the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes: For the upcoming week, we flip things back a bit, with some September
State of the Atmosphere
State of the Atmosphere: Denver and Colorado's weather for the week
Let's help get you ready for the week ahead with a weather pattern that became cooler and wetter this weekend as a weak monsoonal flow collided with a cold front. The trend this week will be drying and warming... That cold front moves through eastern Colorado Sunday with some areas of gusty winds and lower-level clouds. Here is the temperature outlook from Sunday through Tuesday. Notice that Sunday and Monday feel the impact of the cold front which clears out Tuesday when temperatures return to
State of the Atmosphere
Colorado weather: A typical summer week ahead with some storms and warm weather
After a cool Sunday across the region (Denver topped out at just 70°F!) we warm things up and dry things out a bit to start the second week of August. No, it won't be exceptionally hot, nor will it be exceptionally dry. We'll see the chance of storms persist through each afternoon, though the general trend will be a quieter one over the next couple of days. For the Denver area that's about a 30 to 40% chance of storms today, with decreasing chances the next couple of days: The chance for s
State of the Atmosphere
The State of the Atmosphere: Sunday, July 30th, 2023
It's hard to believe we're wrapping up the final days of July, 2023. As we head into August our daily average high in Denver starts to fall once more, from an average high of 90°F today though August 2nd, then down to 89°F on August 3rd. By August 31st the average high for the city will be down to 85°F, and we'll be just days away from Denver's earliest snowfall on record (Se
Denver Weather
Colorado weather: Record heat moves in from the South and West
Record temperatures for parts of Colorado will move in the next few days; of them, Grand Junction will be the hottest with the daily record of 104°F in jeopardy on Monday. Here are the daily highs for a few locations within the region. For Denver, we are within a degree of record highs as currently forecast for Monday (record 102°F) and Tuesday (record 99°F), so needless to say both days have the potential to tie or break the record high for the date. This is part of the extreme heat that ha
Denver Weather
Denver sets precipitation records in June; storms in the forecast today and for July 4th
Denver and the Front Range will have storms Sunday and again Tuesday, the 4th, following a very active June for the city. More on the forecast in a quick moment, but first – Denver had a remarkably wet month of June. 2023 will go down as the wettest June on record and the 6th wettest of any month on record. Denver's records began in 1872. Top June totals: 1. 2023 6.10” 2. 1882 4.96” 3. 2009 4.86” 4. 1967 4.69” 5. 1965 4.14” Top Monthly totals: 1. May 1876 8.57" 2. April 1900 8.24" 3. May 195
Denver Weather
Colorado weather: Drying out, watching fire danger, next round of thunderstorms
Denver and the Front Range have had a few drier days, and warm ones too. Meanwhile, dryness has continued in the mountains and west, which is where we will see fire dangers spread.  The next best chance of rain arrives Thursday. Let's begin with daily rain chances for the next several days in Denver (you can find these probabilities for all of Colorado here ): You'll see the bump in chances Thursday and beyond, but these remain w
Denver Weather
Denver weather: Rain with isolated flooding continues
Clearly we are in a wet pattern around Denver, the Front Range and Plains and this phase is far from wrapping up. Additional rain is on the way today, with scattered showers and thunderstorms for the next week. This is, in part, due to the development of El Niño as discussed here: Does this pattern continue throughout June? We discussed that with our members in our monthly outlook: June 2023 weather outlook: Wet signal continues early onJune is upon us and is off to a wet start across parts o
State of the Atmosphere
The State of the Atmosphere: Sunday, May 28th, 2023
Yesterday was another big day for storms along the lee side of the Rockies, with severe weather from the Mexico to Canadian border on Saturday, and some big-time rain makers to boot. Precipitation totals over the last 24 hours shows the pattern continuing to favor areas along and adjacent to the Rockies as we've seen over the last week: Zoomed in on Colorado we see it was an active weather day for the Northeast Plains, with an isolated (strong!) storm down over Bent/Kiowa counties. Precipi
State of the Atmosphere
The State of the Atmosphere: Monday, May 22, 2023
The atmosphere remains smoky, though we've seen at least some improvement from our recent extreme poor air quality days . Fires continues to rage across large swaths of western Canada, and as long as that continues we'll be susceptible to influxes of smoky/poor air days. Look at the "swirl of smoke" that dropped south over the weekend! > A large swirl of smoke has arrived in the Northern United States.
State of the Atmosphere
Colorado weather: Strong winds, high fire danger, and another winter storm moving into the state
A rather turbulent, and deadly , weather pattern across across the United States persists as we kick off a new week on Monday. Our next weather-maker will begin bringing an increased chance of snow to the high country tonight, with Winter Storm Warnings and Advisories in effect for Monday and Monday night for much of Western Colorado. The storm will eject northeast during the day Tuesday, du
State of the Atmosphere
Denver Weather: Near 70 degrees before a storm chance arrives after midweek
Although we did warm up through the weekend, much warmer temperatures are on tap for the next couple of days before a system later this week may deliver rain and snow chances. There was something significant about last week, before we jump to the warm up. La Niña was officially declared over as of the sea surface temperature data that came in from February through early March. Here's a video that talks about what this means, and if El Niño is next (we still have areas of drought to get through!
State of the Atmosphere
Colorado weather: An active weather week across the region, but will that equate to snow along the Front Range?
Well, not much of storm showing up for later this week in really any of the models today after a couple of days with some impressively snowy runs. As we covered yesterday , the outlook for the coming week remains quite uncertain – with plenty of active weather moving across the country, but hard to say how much of that will impact to the urban corridor. Let's take
State of the Atmosphere
Denver weather: 60s Sunday, cooler this week with snow possible Wednesday to Thursday
Sunday is shaping up to be pretty nice! There will be wind and it will focus on the Palmer Divide, and all across Southern Colorado before ramping up in the mountains and foothills west of Denver tonight. Below are the alerts in place, we have a few regarding snow but most you see here are for winds, particularly east of the Continental Divide: The specifics for those zones highlighted near Denver: > ...HIGH WIND WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 5 PM MST THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH MONDAY MORNING...
State of the Atmosphere
Colorado Weather: Like clockwork, another storm targets the midweek
This weekend has been quite mild, the wind increased Sunday but not quite a sign that a storm is blowing in just yet. Actually, a disturbance did pass by but clearly without a notable impact on the cities, but the high country does have a dose of some snowfall today through tomorrow. That snowfall map is NOT the storm for the metro areas midweek, that's a Sunday - Monday snow total forecast and leaves Denver dry. The next disturbance, however, will bring a chance of snow with cold temperatures
State of the Atmosphere
Denver Weather: Temperature tumble with snow chance to start week
After what was a cold and snowy month across the region in January, February has kicked off with a different tone. Here's this week's State of the Atmosphere. While temperatures remain chilly across parts of the Northeast Plains, we've warmed up to 50°F as of early Sunday afternoon and could add a bit to that before the evening. Regionally we see quite a few 40s
Denver Forecast
Denver weather: Dangerously cold start to the week, snow for some
The cold is now the biggest talking point, as outside of the DEEP snow in the northern mountains, we mainly have dangerous wind chills to expect through Monday morning. Let me geek out first, as if I don't always geek out, but look at this live camera from Steamboat Resort , 49" this week at the summit! I hope they don't clean off the snow stakes before you can see this, but in case they do, here's a quick screen grab from early this
State of the Atmosphere
The State of the Atmosphere: Sunday, January 22nd, 2023
The would-be system that once looked like it might bring another round of good snow to the Front Range tonight and Monday is dropping south through the Great Basin today, headed for the southern Arizona border by early Monday. As it does, we'll have some snow to contend with across the area, but it won't be much. Model guidance suggests most of us won't see much of any accumulation through tomorrow night, and where we do see accumulation it'll remain under and inch or two. The animation abov
Colorado Weather
Denver forecast: Rain and snow showers on Sunday; tracking potential for significant snow across Eastern CO this week
As we discussed in our update on Friday , we are tracking two systems that will bring rain and snow to the state over the coming days. The first of those systems is moving through the state today, and will bring heavy snow to parts of the high country and at least a chance of rain and snow showers to the plains Sunday later today and this evening. Planning forecast
State of the Atmosphere
Colorado weather: Midweek snow on the way for the mountains and parts of the Denver metro area
Let's prepare for the week ahead in today's State of the Atmosphere by discussing the next weather maker for the state which arrives midweek to bring snow and rain to the region. We've discussed the latest surge in the Atmospheric River at length and what impact it will have on the state in this latest occurrence. Atmospheric River: how much moisture hits Colorado and Denver’s next chance for snowWe’ve written about the wet weather pattern across the western US, especially with this latest sto
State of the Atmosphere
Colorado weather: Snowy in the mountains this week, Denver to catch leftovers
Overall our weather pattern this week will favor the mountains with the moisture, but leave lower-end probabilities for the metro areas and plains. There are at least systems that bare watching, but as of this writing the snowfall potential for the eastern half of the state is low. With that said, lacking a strong system, temperatures are expected to stay relatively on a normal path for Denver, with no huge swings in the outlook at this time. There is a potential change to next weekend's outloo