There's enough wind to go around, it can stop now but won't. Oh, and let's throw in a late-season freeze, too, shall we?! There's an active alerts map to show you with the wind concerns being primarily today, and then a possible freeze for Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

What's the setup? A very strong upper-level system is churning over the northern states—Montana and the Dakotas—through midweek. This system is drawing in a lot of energy as it progresses, and we feel that energy as the wind and the temperature drop. This setup will create heavy moisture for those northern states and is driving the severe weather outbreak east of Colorado this afternoon through midweek.

How long will it be so windy? As that system slides through the northern and central states, gusty wind will continue through Tuesday and into Wednesday.

How strong has the wind been so far? Well, too strong if you ask me but it isn't historic. Here's a list of the windiest readings so far within Colorado.

Eric Lupher asked me over the weekend if this past month has been historic in terms of wind - it feels like it should be up there on the list. However, April 2024 was 45th on the list for Denver's average wind in the month. Here is a list of the windiest Aprils in the NCEP Reanalysis dataset for Denver.

Across the U.S., the wind was stronger than average for many folks, including Eastern Colorado, but slower than average for areas of the Southwestern U.S.

That may seem counter-belief to those of us still searching for patio pillows.

A late-season freeze? As this wind calms a bit, temperatures across the Front Range and Plains will dip below freezing Tuesday into Wednesday; some of us into the upper 20s. There is a concern that this late-season freeze can damage our plants/trees. A forecast:

Wait, I saw winter weather issues on that hazards map above! That's true. With this wind and temperature drop, moisture is hitting some of us. That forecast in the previous image indicated that chance of some showers for the Denver area, too. Let's look at total precipitation, and you'll note that Denver and much of the metro area is just barely on the edge of anything appreciable.

There is quite a bit of water for the northern mountains, though. This will be a snowy situation for them, hence the alert for those mountains. Here is the estimated snowfall approaching one to two feet near/around Rabbit Ears through Northern Routt.

This isn't to say we can't get some moisture in the metro areas, but the chances are low. Sadly this wind is drying us out like jerky in a dehydrator. We will have better chances for moisture later this week, though. Sign up for our emails now so you won't miss out on those updates as we send them.