While the weather in Nederland this weekend will be nothing to write home about, it should nonetheless be enjoyable and good for a variety of outdoor activities. Temperatures on Saturday will reach into the low to mid 40s with a mixture of sun and clouds and winds from the west, blowing anywhere from 10 to 20 mph. A disturbance in the mid levels of the atmosphere, also know as a short wave trough, will approach Colorado during the afternoon hours passing across the state Saturday night into Sunday morning. The images below show the locations of this trough (the dashed red line) Saturday at noon, Saturday night at midnight, and Sunday morning. This disturbance remains an open wave during this entire time, meaning that winds never shift around from the east at any level in the atmosphere. It will also be a fast mover with limited amounts of Pacific moisture. With the winds predominantly blowing from the west during this storm, most of the precipitation will be limited to the mountains west of the Continental Divide. At this time, it appears that most of the energy associated with this system will pass across southwestern Colorado, meaning that the heaviest precipitation amounts will be found in the San Juan Mountains in locations favored by west to northwest winds.
For the most part, locations east of the Continental Divide including Nederland should remain dry. This system will usher in slightly colder air for Sunday with temperatures expected to reach only into the lower 30s in the Front Range mountain towns. If you are a snow lover, we are stuck in the January doldrums, at least for the time being as dry weather and milder temperatures are expected to to lead off next week.
