Matt Makens

We've mentioned it in quick passing but now it is time to take a closer look at
the temperatures we have on tap for next week. A huge surge of arctic air will
cover a very large portion of the country next week and Colorado on the edge of
it.

National:
From a national standpoint, this is a major impactor going into Christmas. The
Colorado impacts are written in this blog. If you are curious about the country
as a whole and the potential travel impact areas, I discuss that here:

LOCAL: 
Here are a couple weekly planners to kick things off, and the cold we are
looking at is now coming into view for next Thursday for Denver.

Compare that to Sterling in Northeastern Colorado.

And, let's go out even farther and see what happens near Kansas City.

The trend I am pointing out here is that Denver has a chance of cold air for
Thursday but a little bit east you start to get into much colder air, and head
into the center of it like near Kansas City and it's going to be a deep freeze
for several days.

Here's an overall animation showing the cold as it moves southward next week.
Those pink colors reach Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico. 

I don't think I'd like to compare this event to that of February 2021, I think
it will be a different situation. I will say, however, this is the coldest
outbreak since February 2021 for areas of the south including Texas.

Let's look closer to home here and I'll show a similar animation but for
Colorado. I want you to see that the cold is an impactor for the east, yet the
west stays much warmer by comparison; the mountains will block the cold from
getting west.

The coldest temperatures hug that northeastern corner of the state. As of right
now, there's little indication to suggest the system will be able to drive that
coldest air into Denver and the metro areas. If anything, there's a higher
chance the coldest air will sneak a bit farther east and away from the city.

If you are curious about snow with this setup, yes there will be some but as of
right now it sure doesn't look like much. The storm pattern is such that the
system will develop to our northwest, over the northern Rockies and then head
along a southeasterly path before curving toward New England by Christmas.

Here's an animation showing the rain and snow areas for next week.

We end up with little snowfall should this projection be accurate. 

At this moment there's very little to suggest a deeper trough over the western
US which would support a storm flow over Colorado rather than passing to the
north and east. Of course, there is a lot that can change between now and next
week but that's how things sit as of Friday morning.

We will have more for you in this week's State of the Atmosphere coming out
Sunday.

Colorado weather: arctic cold setting up for next week