Tonight's Forecast:
Skies will clear north to south this evening with lingering southern tier snow showers dissipating as northerly winds continue to decrease available moisture through the early evening. It will be a calm night with mainly clear skies and light winds. This should allow decent radiational cooling, coupled with the cold air mass already in place. This should result in lows about 10 degrees below average.
Colorado Springs forecast: Low: 22; High: 56;
Mainly clear skies - with temperatures quickly lowering to the 20s by 9 PM. If you're heading out this evening you'll want the layers. Winds will be out of the north early but should be nearly calm overnight allowing for good radiational cooling. Sunday will be sunny in the morning with high clouds arriving from the north late in the afternoon.
Pueblo forecast: Low: 20; High: 62;
Progressively clearing skies. Winds out of the north at 10-15 mph, which should lighten to 5-10 mph after midnight. The fact that you still have a bit of wind will keep you a couple degrees warmer than you'd be with a completely calm sky...but it will still be quite cold.
Canon City forecast: Low: 24; High: 57;
Partly cloudy before midnight but, your skies should become mainly clear overnight. Wind will be light as well due to the blocking effect of the surrounding terrain. Pockets of town will likely dip to the low 20s.
Woodland Park forecast: Low: 15; High: 46;
Winter is making a brief return appearance tonight as lows fall into the teens! Skies should generally be mainly clear though I see a bit of moisture producing some mid-level clouds during the overnight. Also a bit of a rarity - light winds!
Tri-Lakes forecast: Low: Teens/20s; High: 45-50;
Mostly clear skies - temperatures should fall to the 20s quite quickly after sunset with continued northerly winds in the 10-15 mph range. I suspect some of the higher points in the area will be in the teens, particularly once winds reduce to near zero overnight.
Plains forecast: Low: Teens/20s; High: 50s/60s;
Clearing skies - and cold. Northeast winds at 10-15 mph eventually will shift northwest and drop to 5-10 mph overnight.
Walsenburg and Trinidad forecast: Low: 18/15; High: 50/51;
Mostly cloudy early tonight, clouds eventually clear all the way out late overnight. West winds at 5-10 mph.
Mountains forecast: Low: Teens; High: 40s;
Mostly cloudy with spotty flurries hanging around through 9:00 PM with clearing skies overnight. West winds at 5-10 mph.
Extended outlook forecast:
Flow will remain northerly on Sunday as the upper level system that brought the snow today moves east. Still, with drier air in place skies will be partly cloudy to mainly sunny with significant snow melting in the southern tier. However, it's likely that Walsenburg and Trinidad will experience relatively cooler highs than normal due to snow reflecting solar energy back to space.
A ridge of high pressure builds Monday and then flattens out Tuesday into Wednesday. This will lead to downslope breezes on Tuesday and Wednesday with elevated fire risks for some, particularly on Wednesday, although the wind doesn't look high-end to me either day. A cold front will cross the region Wednesday. It's theoretically possible for a shower or t-storm to come out of this but I've left that potential off the 7-day forecast for the moment. Ensemble forecasts hint at a small pocket of instability over the eastern plains, and upper level flow is northwesterly - which can be a sneaky set up for showers. Otherwise, Wednesday mainly comes with an increase in clouds following the front with clear skies and downslope winds ahead of it.
Thursday will be a bit cooler following the cold front but still above average. A more potent upper level high arrives for next weekend which should translate to quite a bit of warmth - highs in the 15-20 above average range (80s widespread).
High pressure will move through southern Colorado on Monday which will lead to a nice day with mainly sunny skies.
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