DENVER — Let’s face it, folks: This wouldn’t be Colorado if crazy weather shifts didn’t happen in a span of mere hours, which will be the case by Tuesday morning when snow returns to the Denver metro.
Already, snow showers are developing in the mountains ahead of more impactful snowfall Monday night into Tuesday, according to the forecasters with the National Weather Service in Boulder.
Some of that snow — which has our central and southern mountains under a winter storm warning through 11 p.m. Tuesday — will eventually make its way to Denver by the morning commute Tuesday.
“Temperatures will fall quickly here in town through the day,” said Denver7’s Katie LaSalle. “We’ll start off in the 40s but by 9:30 in the morning, we’re already looking at temperatures falling to the low 30s” as this next storm moves into the area.
Weather service officials said the storm that will be moving from the high country should bring “a decent band of snow” to the Denver metro on top of low-level winds that should generate at least a couple of hours of snowfall from about 8 or 9 a.m. until after the lunch hour.
Highs in the Denver metro should reach the upper 30s by around 2:30 p.m. as the storm moves eastward by late afternoon.
How much snow can we expect?
“We’ll settle on ‘1 to 3 inches,’ but mostly 1 (inch)’ as our messaging,” forecasters said late Monday morning. “We also continue to expect warm temperatures to mitigate impacts for the lower elevations, with some threat of minor impacts mainly early evening if slower/stronger end of the solutions pans out.”
Those further down south of the Denver metro — people living in the Palmer Divide and Colorado Springs — can expect between two-to-four inches, LaSalle said.
The heaviest snow will be in the mountains, however, where even a couple of inches would be problematic with blowing snow and reduced visibility at times for the passes.
“Some of our mountain towns could be seeing around six to even 12 inches over higher terrain into our central and southern mountains,” LaSalle added.
As for the rest of the week, forecasters said Denverites can expect lighter winds with warming temperatures and low humidity as highs rebound between the low 50s and mid-60s by Saturday.
An increasing fire weather threat returns this weekend with near record warmth and more wind possible Saturday, with another chance for spotty showers arriving Sunday.
The February blasts of snow have helped Denver get a little closer to normal seasonal snowfall totals, but the metro is still around 10 inches behind for the year.
So far in the 2023-2024 snow season, Denver's snow gauge at DIA shows 24.6 inches. That amount is still behind the cumulative normal at this point in the year of 34.9 inches.
Halfway through February, Denver is already ahead of what we normally see for the month before Friday's snow arrives.
Denver's February snow totals show 9.2 inches which is ahead of the 7.8 inches normally expected during the entire month.
To view the Denver snowfall statistics infographics in fullscreen mode click this link.