If you just moved to the Colorado Foothills this year, you may have been enjoying our unseasonably warm and dry Autumn, thinking that our climate in the Central Rockies is more Florida-like, and that the stories of cold and snow here are slightly over blown. You could be right, but climate records indicate otherwise. And this week, winter strikes back as our daytime temperatures remain in the 20s into this weekend. A stretch of sub-freezing temperatures means the formation of ice on Barker Reservoir in Nederland and along North, Middle, and South Boulder Creeks. It also presents the opportunity for local ski areas to make copious amounts of snow. They need all of the help they can get.
In addition to the cold, a storm system will slowly sink southward into the southwestern United States Thursday night through Friday. While the weather forecast models are in disagreement about how quickly this system will deepen, there is a possibility that a period of easterly upslope winds could set up over northeastern Colorado and the Foothills on Friday, resulting in a period of light snow. The ground is cold and the winter sun is low. Any snow that does fall will easily stick to roads and even southern facing exposures. This will not be a big storm … Just enough to whiten the ground and make it feel like early winter.