Another foothills boom? Or overall bust? Latest look at the snowfall forecast for Wednesday night

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Not a fun forecast upcoming for your Wednesday. Generally speaking, it feels a lot like our foothills boom snowfall from a week ago, with perhaps not quite as much upside potential.

The biggest issues working against snowfall this time around is a bit more dry air in play, and the fact the best energy/lift associated with the incoming system continuing to try and drop too far south – at least for those north of the Palmer Divide.

Still, it looks like a period of snow is on the way from Wednesday afternoon into the early morning hours of Thursday. Snow will develop first along the Front Range foothills and eventually expand east – at least a bit! – by Wednesday evening and overnight.

Thus, greatest snowfall potential will again be along and west of I-25, down across the Palmer Divide, and in and around Colorado Springs. A band of heavier snowfall looks to eventually develop Wednesday night, which could put down some good totals even extending east of the hills a bit, but most models keep it south of the greater Denver metro area.

Timeline
A cold front tonight will drop temperatures back into the 30s for Wednesday, even before any of the snow starts to fall. The push of colder air could mean we see spotty fog and freezing drizzle develop across the region tonight, with the best potential for this down in the Colorado Springs area. Recent data is less convincing here, as most models show a bit too much dry air for widespread issues tonight. Still, some icing is possible, and needs to be watched for the morning commute.

Snow chances will increase Wednesday afternoon, with the best chance of snow for Denver showing up around the evening commute and thereafter. The snow should be over for the morning commute Thursday, but if we manage some accumulation the commute may be slow.

The timeline for Colorado Springs is similar, with a bit better chance for some drizzle developing late tonight, but still wrapping up Thursday morning:

Snowfall forecast
A really tough call. Models are all over the place, and dry air is a big concern for us north of the Palmer. Still, some nice totals might stack up in the foothills, with a Trace to 3" downtown Denver and east of I-25.

Better potential still over the Palmer and for Colorado Springs (at least on the north and west side). Here we'll go 2 - 7", with the greatest "boom" potential should things look a bit more favorable tomorrow. Right now it seems like the boom potential is much lower than a week ago.

With 3 - 7" high-end totals the potential for a nice snowfall coming up, but the low-end totals of a Trace to 2" stresses caution of getting too excited about potential with this setup.

Latest snowfall probabilities would agree with this caution. Odds for 3" of snow or more through Thursday is pictured below, with decent odds for the foothills immediately west of Denver and across the Western Palmer/Colorado Springs area, but the areas with greater 30% odds for 3" of snow are limited!

We'll see how things trend tonight and Wednesday morning and update as necessary. Right now it feels like we're trying to keep the whole thing from falling apart vs staring a boom in the face – but let's see what things look like in another 24 hours!