Let’s not mix politics and science here. A progressive weather pattern is not a liberal weather pattern. It is a pattern in which storm systems move quickly across a given location resulting in brief periods of stormy weather. In this case, we are talking about the Colorado Front Range, and a series of storm systems will be affecting our weather through the weekend and into early next week. The first system will bring wind and snow showers to Nederland and the surrounding Foothills communities Friday afternoon and evening as an area of low pressure develops in southeastern Colorado. This system will quickly move into the Great Plains Friday night. The winds with this system are not favorable for significant snowfall in the foothills east of the Continental Divide. However, for locations along and west of the Continental Divide the snow will be piling up, so if you are traveling on Friday to go skiing or heading westbound on I-70 leave yourself extra time to get over the passes.
Saturday and Sunday will offer plenty of sunshine and milder temperatures before the next storm system approaches from Northern California/Oregon on Monday. This storm system may produce a brief period of light snow to Nederland on Monday night and Tuesday morning, but again it does not appear to be a big snow producer, especially east of the Continental Divide.
After that it appears the seasonably cold but primarily dry conditions will dominate for the remainder of next week.
January tends to be one of our drier months here in Nederland with fewer storms than we typically see later in the winter and in the spring. We remain above normal in terms of snow for this winter. We’ll see what February, March, April, and May bring.