Predict Denver's First Measurable Snowfall, 2023 | Contest ends midnight October 10th | ENTER HERE!
image: Colorado weather: Where's the snow and cold?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
Contests
Eleventh annual First Snowfall Prediction Contest starts today!
Afternoon highs in the 80s and overnight lows near 50°F have anyone else thinking snow? Just me? Well, if this crisp autumn air isn't getting you in the mood, hopefully this post will. We're now less than 4 weeks from the date of Denver's average first snowfall, October 18th. And, while the last two years have featured later than average first snows in the city, as recently as 2020 Denver's first measurable snow came more than a month early (September 8th that year [https://www.weather5280.com
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
image: Colorado weather: Cooler with a good chance of rain on Thursday, FridayDenver Forecast
Colorado weather: Cooler with a good chance of rain on Thursday, Friday
Pretty hard to find much to complain about with regard to the weather over the last several days across the region. Temperatures have been average to below average across Eastern Colorado, to well below average across the northern High Plains, and plentiful moisture has fallen for some areas that need it most. Here's a look at temperature anomalies over the last seven days. Still quite a bit of heat holding on across New Mexico and Texas and also across New England where they are also now moni
SOTA
Denver Weather: Fall, is that you? Cooler week ahead with rain chances
Feels like fall today, cloudy and light rain at our headquarters with football on the tv so that must mean that fall is in the air. For the week ahead, Denver and the Front Range will be considerably cooler with 60s and 70s versus the 80s and 90s, which will be 5 to 15 degrees cooler than normal from day to day this week. No, that low of 48 for Saturday isn't the first of the "season," we've had a couple temperatures that cool in the past month. The last time the city had a high temperature i
Forecast Update
A taste of fall is on the way for Colorado, Plains states
It's September, so of course this means there's plenty of buzz around the latest hurricane in the Atlantic. Lee could very well become a category 5 hurricane as it slowly tracks west before making an eventual turn north and northeast next week. While the southeast is likely to escape the wrath of Lee, states north will be on alert for any potential impacts next week. With any luck the storm will stay fully out-to-sea. As always, you can track the latest forecasts for the tropics here: https://ww
Weather5280 Insider
Insiders: El Niño and the extended outlook
Earlier this year, we were still in the grip of La Niña, but from April through August, we saw a transition toward El Niño. El Niño began to develop in the spring and by summer had a more powerful grip on the atmosphere. There are multiple ways of measuring how strong the grip is, whether that be in the atmosphere, ocean or a combination of those two. The atmosphere's behavior is shown here, by one such metric called the SOI, where positive values are La Niña characteristics and negative valu
SOTA
Denver Weather: Cooler week ahead with scattered storms
It's September 3rd, historically the earliest snowfall for Denver came today in 1961 with 4.2 inches but 2023 brings a mix of sun and clouds with highs into the 90s. Labor Day will also hit the 90s but a bit of a cooler stretch kicks off Tuesday...more on that in a moment. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cwu8CWPs5Cc/ For today and tomorrow, increasing afternoon clouds offer a bit of shade and heat-relief. In the following hourly planner you'll see the rain chances beneath the temperature timeline
Weekend Outlook
Colorado weather: First weekend of September will be a hot one along the Front Range
Ah September... when the temperature finally starts to drop and chatter about when we might see the season's first snow becomes a nightly routine around the dinner table. In theory anyway. The first weekend of September this year will be anything but fall-like around here with highs in the low to mid 90s through Labor Day along the urban corridor. While it looks like we'll fall a few degrees short of the record high today (98°F, 2019) and tomorrow (100°F, 2019), we'll still be about 10°F ab
Hurricane
Powerful Idalia makes landfall as category 3 hurricane in Florida
Hurricane Idalia made landfall early this morning as a strong category 3 hurricane in the Big Bend region of Florida, just south of Perry, FL. > #Hurricane #Idalia has made landfall in the Big Bend of Florida with max winds of 125 mph - the strongest #hurricane to make landfall in the Big Ben
Hurricane
Florida and Georgia brace for hurricane Idalia, Carolinas on alert: Forecast
Hurricane Idalia has entered the Gulf of Mexico and strengthened this morning as it picks up speed and heads north toward the Big Bend region of Florida for an expected early Wednesday morning landfall. It is forecast to make landfall as a major hurricane, with winds in excess of 110 mph. The only notable changes in the ongoing forecast for Idalia over the last day or so has been the placement of the landfall. This is normal and expected and we'll likely see a bit more wobbling in the data tod
Denver Weather
Denver weather: Afternoon and evening storms, plan accordingly
There's another dose of storminess to move through later Monday, which will include potential impact on your school pickup times, commute, or evening sports practices. Here's a look at the overall chances for storms across the state today: The focus is on the Front Range Mountains and along the I-25 corridor. Here's a timeline to help guesstimate the impact at your spot. The difference between these storms and those yesterday is the speed. These, in theory, have a bit faster pace to them and
Denver Weather
State of the Atmosphere: Denver area weekly weather outlook
Temperatures take a bit of a ride as rain chances come and go this week for the Denver area. Expect the next temperature drop tomorrow, and then we warm back into the 90s by midweek. In hourly form, here are the temperatures (top chart below) and rain chances (below). Rain chances will climb early in the week before dropping. Here's an animation showing the potential arrival times of the storms near you. From the hourly planner above, we can go farther to see the next increase in rain chance
Denver Forecast
A recap of yesterday's rainfall across Colorado, who saw how much and when to expect more
Thankfully the flash flooding issues were relatively isolated in nature yesterday across the region given the high-end potential. Most areas along the Front Range picked up from 0.3" to 1.0" of rain. East of Fort Morgan we saw a cell drop 2 - 3" of rain Friday morning, as well as some 3 - 4" totals just north of the Colorado border in Nebraska. Similarly some localized heavy rainfall in the high country led to multiple Flash Flood Warnings being issued Friday evening. Around Fort Collins sever
Flood Watch
Flood Watch in effect for Northeast Colorado as region sees heavy rain at times Friday, Friday night
It's not exceedingly common for us to see remnants from a tropical storm bring heavy rainfall to the state, particularly for storms out of the Atlantic. It's more common from the Eastern Pacific, but still, not exactly an event one associates with Northeast Colorado. Yet, here we are. Tropical storm Harold which moved through southern Texas earlier this week is bringing areas of heavy rainfall to Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska today and tonight which has prompted the NWS to issue a Flood Watc
Denver Weather
Colorado weather: Big time cool down with areas of heavy rainfall in the forecast
A strong system will spread colder temperatures, more than 20-degrees colder, and heavy enough rainfall our cautionary flags are raised to the potential flooding that may be on the way. At the moment there are no alerts in place for the state, but that may change Friday as heavy rainfall takes aim on parts of the state. We do have alerts for heat for those to the east of the state, who will also cool off later this weekend. Denver's cool off will be throughout the day Friday, but rain chances
Colorado Weather
Colorado weather: Rain is on the way, how much and when it's forecast to arrive
Across northeast Colorado one more hot day to work through on Thursday before a cold front arrives and brings a notable drop in daytime temperatures to the region Friday. The 10 days blended model data shows a high of just 76°F on Friday in Denver, a nice break indeed after our most recent streak of 90°F+ degree weather. The best chance for appreciable rainfall along the northern urban corridor and northeast plains looks to come Friday and Friday night. That said, as early as tomorrow we shoul
General Update
Making changes to our Weather5280 Insider subscription service
Summer, generally speaking, is the "quiet time" around here at Weather5280. Readers of this site have long had a snow-loving bias, for which we can't fault you. This summer of course this has been less true – it's been a remarkably active summer, and wet one at that , but tornadoes [https://www.weather5280.com/2023/06/23/highlands-ranch-tornado-damage-estimated-to-be-e
Denver Forecast
Denver set a new record high on Monday, Heat Advisory issued for this afternoon
The heat continues. Monday Denver set a new record high for August 21st hitting 99°F Monday afternoon breaking the old record of 97°F for the date. At 99°F, Monday also tied the hottest day of the year thus far in Denver, when Denver hit 99°F last week. > New record high for today at Denver. #cowx pic.twitter.com/G7FFTKvMSJ — NWS Boulder (@NWSBoulder) August 21, 2023 [https://twitter.com/NWSBoulder/st
Heat Wave
Central U.S. bakes under record heat, Hilary flooding continues
Record heat is forecast from Colorado to the eastern seaboard today as a massive ridge of high pressure continues to dominate the weather pattern east of the Rockies: The record high for the date today in Denver is 97°F, we should tie or break that by a couple of degrees by this afternoon, with a forecast high of 99°F downtown. Below is a look at all the potential daily records that could be broken today given the current forecast, with most of those coming from Texas through the plains states