In Brief:
A slow warm-up except for a very cold Friday.
Wednesday Update.
Widespread heavy snow hit the mountains with this long duration storm/cold spell (Figure 1 update). The yellow dots are 1-2 feet with a location near Steamboat Springs getting around 3.5 feet! Along I-25 it was still a fair amount of snow with widespread 2-5 inch totals.
We have more mountain snow coming Wednesday/Thursday. Friday will be briefly very cold again (20's for a high). Then we move into a longer dry period and warm-up.
End Wednesday update.
Forecast Discussion:
The news, nationwide, has been how remarkable and widespread the cold air and snow has been. We have about two days left of the deep freeze locally, then the cold air will slosh out to the southeast (Figure 1). We also have another shot of snow, bringing about 1-4 inches to I-25 folks and 3-5 inches for the Foothills, and a foot or two for the higher elevations (Figure 6).
The cold air on Sunday is still spreading to the south and east across the nation (Figure 2, purples). The peak cold air will push in Monday evening (Figure 3).
The GFS gives Longmont 2-3 inches of new snow between 4am and 5pm Monday (Figure 4). The NAM also gives us 2-3 inches (Figure 5).
Matt M. at weather5280 puts Longmont in the 1-4 inch zone (Figure 6).
The Longer Range Forecast:
Looking back at Figure 1 - we finally climb above freezing Wednesday with a brief chill Thursday PM and Friday with a small snow chance. Welcome to Colorado winters!
