Here comes another shot of Arctic air folks. The maps below show temperature anomalies...orange/red are warmer than average, with blue/purple below average.

Friday Morning

Friday Evening

Saturday Morning

Saturday Evening

Sunday Morning

Pretty easy to see that not only does this shot of Arctic air mean business, but it is going to impact A LOT of people. Temperatures will be well below zero for many areas (especially Saturday night and early Sunday), and that is not taking into account the wind chill. Bottom-line, prepare for the cold...

There will be some snow too... Models are offering different solutions, but are generally in the same ballpark. There will be a pretty good shot of snow with the storm system, as it moves through. The farther north you live, the more snow you are likely to see. The map below is from the GFS Model. It shows the total amount of expected liquid from this storm.

Now we all know it will be far too cold to rain, and all of the precipitation will be snow. So how do we figure snow potential? Take the liquid moisture total and multiply it somewhere between 15 and 25. Thus, 0.25" of liquid equals roughly between 3 and 6" of snow. If you are lucky enough to get 0.50" of liquid, you will likely end up with 7-12" of snow. Get the idea? This is certainly not a foolproof method, but it is one that will give you a rough idea of how much snow to expect. You can see that areas along the Cheyenne Ridge and between I-80 and I-90 will likely get the brunt of the snow. However, locations to the south of I-80 will still see some snow.

The GFS Model does paint some accumulating snow for much of Eastern Colorado, but certainly nothing heavy

We think that the model totals may be a bit light, but not excessively so. Bottom-line for Colorado...the mountains will see the brunt of the snow. Areas farther east will still see snow, but amounts will be heavier the farther north you live. The snow will be dry and fluffy, so likely won't do much good for the drought situation. If there are any significant changes to our thoughts, we will obviously update you.