Season's First Snow on the Way

It appears that my instincts were right from several days back to go with the colder computer model forecasting a changeover from liquid to some form of frozen precipitatin ; (at the moment, the warmer computer model "thinks" that temperatures in the area are almost 10 degrees warmer than they actually are right now.)

The storm system I've been tracking for almost a week is finally pushing into the region. That means heavy cloud cover and drizzle as I write this at 5pm on Saturday, with local temperatures primarily in the upper 30s. The "good" news for those wanting to see snow is that temperatures are already much lower now than we were expecting for this time as little as 24 hours ago.

The trough that's pushing into the area will also allow for a pretty cold early-fall airmass to bleed into the region. That means that temperatures, over the course of the evening and overnight period, will slowly drop closer to the freezing mark.

While only liquid precipitation is expected through at least late evening -- with a thundershower and occasionally gusty winds not out of the question -- in the immediate Boulder/Denver area, after midnight it's likely that precipitation will change to a mix of rain and snow and probably to all snow (albeit very wet) before sunrise Sunday as temperatures hover near the freezing mark.

Up to an inch of wet snow -- primarily on grassy and typically cooler surfaces -- is possible, though little or no actual accumulation is equally plausible. But I do believe that snow will be seen overnight Saturday; the question is whether any of the snow sticks or not.

(Note that locations >6500ft may receive up to 3-6" of snow Saturday night as temperatures will be cooler at higher elevations.)

We have another shot of some light snow late Sunday into Monday morning, which I'll try to update you about tomorrow...