6:30 AM MDT, Friday, October 12, 2018

Enjoy the sunny and warmer weather today through at least Saturday morning. The next cold snap beginning late Saturday will be colder than the previous one, but it won’t be as prolonged. A widespread light-moderate snowfall is likely Saturday night into Sunday.

Timing

The strong polar front will probably move south through eastern Wyoming Saturday morning (Cheyenne in the midday hours ), and southward through eastern Colorado from mid afternoon to early evening (probably late afternoon in Denver-Boulder). Clouds and periods of precipitation are likely to begin a few hours after the front and continue through Sunday morning. There may be some rain at first, but this one should be mainly snow.

Snow Accumulation

1-3″ high plains including east side of Denver, and around Colorado Springs

2-5″ inches in and near the lower foothills, including west side of Denver, Boulder, and around Cheyenne

4-7″ inches higher elevations, including Nederland

Record Cold?

Temperatures should plunge quickly to the 20s Saturday evening, stay near or below freezing Sunday, and really fall under clearing skies by Monday morning. The record low Monday morning for both Denver and Boulder is 20 (both set in 1970). It looks likely that those will be broken with temperatures in the teens.

Warmer pattern coming

It looks like we will see a pattern shift to drier and warmer autumn weather next week after a very cold start on Monday.