Tonight's Forecast:
We started the work week - and National Weather Person's day (!) with highs in the upper 40s to mid 50s - thanks to our fair weather maker: high pressure.
Tonight, that high moves away, as incredibly potent energy and moisture streams out of southern California - an "Atmospheric River" and arrives here in the Centennial State. Thanks to the height of the Continental Divide, all we'll see in our sky is mid and high-level clouds. Those clouds keep our overnight lows in the upper 20s to low 30s - about 10 degrees above average for your Tuesday morning commute.
Colorado Springs forecast: Low: 28; High: 60;
Mostly cloudy with light northwest winds. Generally around 10 degrees above average for lows due to the cloud cover.
Pueblo forecast: Low: 27; High: 63;
Mostly cloudy with west winds at 10 mph.
Canon City forecast: Low: 31; High: 61;
Mostly cloudy and, relatively speaking, mild, with light winds from the west.
Woodland Park forecast: Low: 27; High: 50;
Mostly cloudy with southwest winds at 10-15 mph. Expect a low chance for a sprinkle tomorrow.
Tri-Lakes forecast: Low: Low 30s; High: 50s;
Mostly cloudy and relatively quiet weather wise. A light occasional southwesterly breeze at 5-10 mph is all you'll notice. Tomorrow,
Plains forecast: Low: Upper 20s; High: 60s;
Partly cloudy early with mostly cloudy skies after midnight. Southwest winds at 10-15 mph.
Walsenburg and Trinidad forecast: Low: 29/32; High: 53/60;
Mostly cloudy and cool with west winds at 15 mph. Expect a breezy Tuesday with southwest winds at 10-15 mph gusting to 35 mph.
Mountains forecast: Low: 20s; High: 40s;
Mostly clludy with south winds at 10-15 mph. Gusty tomorrow with winds 15-20 mph gusting to 40 mph. The peaks of the Continental Divide see snow, the Sangres and Wets just see the clouds.
Extended outlook forecast:
Temperatures climb to the upper 50s, to lower 60s Tuesday with southwesterly breezes helping overcome cloud cover that sticks around all day to push temperatures to their mild afternoon highs. It'll be a fine day to get outside but with more clouds than sun. Things will be quite different for our friends along and west of the Continental Divide on Tuesday though.
The system bringing us the clouds today, brings our mountain regions snow that in some areas will be measured in feet. Winter Storm Warnings are in effect Tuesday through Thursday for the San Juan mountains, with some of our latest model data suggesting places like Wolf Creek Pass could come away with 30 to 40 inches of snow by Thursday afternoon!
Mountain snow continues Wednesday, with some reaching the US 24 corridor including and west of Woodland Park - places like Florissant and Divide see snow showers. Wednesday will be gusty to windy - with the eastern plains seeing gusts to 50 mph, and I-25 between 30 and 40 mph.
A cold front on Wednesday will cool highs for Thursday, but it's relatively weak. Another cold front continues our descent down the temperature staircase Friday with highs only reaching the lower 40s. It's not until this weekend that we see our next weather maker in southern Colorado, with snow chances as a system arrives from the Pacific Northwest. We'll have more data on this storm on Wednesday as it moves onshore in Washington State.
____
Curious about the First Alert 5 Weather Storm Impact Scale? Check out our cheatsheet explainer.
Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.