DENVER — Christmas Eve snow should diminish through the day in the Denver metro area and across most areas in Colorado as a second wave of snow and strong winds could bring blizzard conditions in portions of the state's far northeastern plains.
While light snow and a few flakes will continue to fall in the mountains and urban areas Sunday, it shouldn’t amount to much in terms of added accumulation.
“Our hourly planner for the metro shows light snow early on in the day and then we’ll have some flakes flying as we get into the early afternoon but tapering off the longer we go into the evening,” said Denver7 meteorologist Stacey Donaldson. ”During the Broncos game we’ll have flakes at kickoff potentially but temperatures will be very cold, you’ll need to bundle up if you’re going to be at the game.”
The temperature at Empower Field at Mile High should be around 31 degrees at kickoff dropping into the upper 20s by the 4th quarter.
Meanwhile in portions of Colorado’s far northeastern plains, blowing snow and gusty winds could lead to treacherous driving conditions through Sunday afternoon.
A winter storm watch goes into effect Monday evening into Tuesday morning for Phillips and Sedgwick Counties for the potential for blizzard conditions including 4 additional inches of snow and winds up to 55 mph.
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“Expect 1 to 3 inches of snowfall for the metro, but we’ll probably be on the low end of that, the foothills could see 3 to 5 inches,” said Donaldson. “As for our travel forecast, there shouldn’t be any problems on Monday or Tuesday with those sunny skies, it’s Sunday where we may have the issues either at the airport or as you’re driving around the state.”
While weather conditions for Christmas day will quickly improve across the Denver metro, mountains and Front Range, the NWS warned of the potential for blizzard conditions to develop Monday in the state’s northeast plains.
“North winds will be strong, with gusts above 40 to 50 mph, so any amount of snow could lead to blowing snow and significant visibility reductions,” wrote the NWS. “The counties at greatest risk of experiencing near blizzard or blizzard conditions at this time are Sedgwick, Phillips, Logan, and Washington.”The NWS said snowfall totals for those counties remained uncertain.
Christmas day in Denver should bring mostly sunny skies and a high temperature warming into the mid 30s before rebounding to the mid-to-upper 40s for most of the week.
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