Our weekend is looking more and more tame with a rainy Sunday bringing a few thunderstorms. Colorado, on the other hand, is watching for Snowmageddon!
The reason is that a very slow-moving storm will take all weekend to get across the southern Rockies and, as it crawls along, plenty of Gulf moisture will feed into it. Here’s the current setup showing the approaching storm and a big high-pressure system coming down from Canada. I’ve drawn a purple line illustrating how that High is blocking the Low from moving very fast:
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The jet stream, those fast-moving upper air winds, would normally help move this Low along, but the Low is forming just north of the Jet (what we call a cut-off Low because it’s cut off from the jet) so that’s no help:
This snow-making machine will move across the Rockies at a snow-shoe pace, not a downhill racer:
An easy 2 FEET of snow is forecast around Denver with as much as 4 FEET possible in more mountainous areas.
There is an upside
The 2002 blizzard in Denver cured an ongoing drought and if you look at yesterday’s U.S. Drought Monitor it’s easy to see “exceptional” to “extreme” drought across the Rockies. So this snow event could be a lifesaver.
The snow Low will move out of the area Monday, but it’s going to be a no-travel weekend in Colorado! There’s just ‘sno’-stopping it.
Don’t forget to set those clocks one hour forward Saturday night! But, hey, it’s still the weekend!
Frank