Snow...Snow...Snow

I need to catch up now after Finals week. Small batch of moisture to our NW moving this way and will affect our region Thursday night and into Friday.

Short Range-
A weak short wave disturbance will be moving through the Front Range area Thursday night 12/13 with snow developing around 11pm Thursday night. Clouds will develop by Thursday afternoon with FROPA (frontal passage) over night. Snow will continue through late morning on Friday and taper off by the afternoon Friday. Vertical motion by Q-G forcing not very apparent, so upslope will not be very strong if any at all. Total snow accumulations around 2-3 inches. Clouds clearing by Saturday mid-day with NW flow and building shallow high pressure through rest of the weekend. New snow cover will provide strong radiational cooling and will drop temperatures to single digits by Saturday morning but will slightly warm up during day time heating.

Long Range-
Long range looking fairly dry and cold with W to NW flow dominating through the high pressure through the week. Next strong significant trough will dig south and bring moisture from Pacific NW late in the week. A cold front passage will take place on Friday 12/21 with snow developing along western CO as well as Front Range by Friday afternoon. Snow will continue through the night into Saturday morning and ending by Saturday night. Totals look to be around 4-5 inches. Strong Q-G vertical motion on Friday night giving significant upslope component along Northern Front Range enhancing snow fall. More details to come…