Another Large Storm System Brewing & Will Bring BIG Changes

Likely First Snow for Denver/Colorado Springs

While many of us in the Eastern U.S. are going to be experiencing a warming trend over the next several days with temperatures warming into the 70s and low 80s, those of you in the Rockies and especially eastern Colorado will have to be preparing for a possible significant snow event.

 The jetstream will be dipping southward into the Southern Rockies/Southern Plains Monday and Tuesday and a potent upper level piece of energy will be diving into the bottom of the associated trough. This will help spin up a surface low over the Panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma. Additionally, a strong area of high pressure will be sinking southward through Montana and this will deliver cold to the Plains and Rockies.

 The combination of the two systems will create a stiff northeasterly wind flow over eastern Colorado and this will lead to upsloping conditions. Mix in moisture from the south and a perfect set-up is there for widespread snow from Colorado Springs to southeast Wyoming along the I-25 corridor, Tuesday night into Wednesday. Still too early to nail down snow amounts with high confidence but it is very possible that 4"+ of heavy, wet, slushy snow will fall in the populated zone from Colorado Springs to Loveland and this would lead to disruption along I-25 and I-70.

This storm system will then eject eastward through the lower Mississippi Valley into the Tennessee/Ohio Valleys Wednesday/Thursday. As it does it will spread a large swath of rain from the Red River Valley into the Ohio Valley.

Rainfall of 1" to 3" will be possible within this swath

Forecast Accumulated Rainfall Thru Thursday Afternoon

A sharp temperature gradient will also set up from north to south along a frontal boundary that the storm system will track along. For example, on Wednesday, St. Louis will likely only be in the upper 40s to low 50s while Paducah, KY, 140 miles SE, will be about 20 to 25 degrees warmer. But once the low passes the cold air will crash southward behind it from Texas into the Southeast for the latter half of next week.

This storm will lift northeastward through next weekend allowing for a brief warming trend that will occur for most through Halloween and the first half of the first week of November but I expect another BIG pattern change to spread west to east November 5th-9th.