Very Cold Morning For Denver And The Plains
Frigid temps move back into the picture for the second night in a row. Lows on Wednesday morning fell to 1 degree above zero at DIA, Thursday morning will start off the same way. The metro area will wake up to single digit temps, but some towns in eastern Colorado may fall several degrees below zero.
A Wind Chill Advisory is posted for Yuma, Kit Carson, and Cheyenne counties from 11 p.m. Wednesday until 8 a.m. Thursday. Wind chill values will fall 15–20 degrees below zero. Air temps are expected to drop to 5–10 below zero. Be careful if working outdoors early in the morning, frostbite can easily develop on exposed skin in those temperatures.
A weak cold front moves through Denver on Thursday night and will bring a chance of light snow to the Front Range. Friday will be the last "cold" day for quite a while. A nice warming trend sets up through the middle of next week with highs in the 50s by Tuesday and Wednesday.
The mountains north of I-70 have the best chance for accumulating snow through the weekend. None of the weather systems look too impressive, but a few inches are possible here and there. There's still lots of fresh snow to be found at the ski areas if you're willing to look around. Stick to the north facing slopes that don't get any sun exposure—these areas stay coldest, so the snow doesn't go through the melt-refreeze cycle.
In Colorado snowpack news, February is starting strong for the whole state. From my personal observations in the Lab I can tell we've had consistent snow this season with great coverage in the mountains. When the south facing slopes are still white (think right-hand side of I-70 traveling west) that's always a good sign. These areas usually lose their cover quickly because of the constant sunshine. As of this post, our statewide snowpack is 117% of average. That means when all river basins are averaged together, we have more snow on the ground than we usually do by this point in the winter.
Justin McHeffey provides nightly reports from the Mobile Weather Lab. He travels Colorado in search of Mother Nature's most powerful and beautiful conditions. Like his Facebook page Meteorologist Justin McHeffey and follow him on Twitter @WeatherMcHeffey.
