If you're heading to the Ice Festival this holiday weekend, the sculptures won't be the only icy thing you'll encounter. As a Winter Storm approaches southern Colorado, you'll be driving over icy roads, and with wind chills in the teens on Saturday, you'll definitely be feeling the chill too!
Cripple Creek sits at 9,494 feet of elevation, southwest of Pikes Peak. This location means that Cripple Creek's microclimate is different from the Front Range Corridor. Airflow from the northeast will downslope into the Highway 67 corridor, reducing rain and snow chances. Flow from the East will tend to wrap around the mountain, which can enhance snowfall rates. On Friday night, airflow will initially result in downsloping airflow in Cripple Creek, before a small region of low pressure known as a mesolow, tracks south along the Front Range. Upslope and wrap around flow will result in snow starting in Cripple Creek by 10PM. Snow will continue overnight before tapering off early tomorrow morning.
Snow totals should range from 2-4" in the region. Pikes Peak itself could see more, the darker blue on the graphic above. Thus, Saturday morning will be icy getting to Cripple Creek on Highway 67, and it will be cold all day. It'll certainly feel like the ice festival!
Temperatures in the morning will be in the teens, with single digit wind chills. In the afternoon it'll feel like the low 20s. Thus, you should expect slippery morning conditions, and cold all day. By afternoon the sun should help with the snow cover. Sunday will be a bit warmer with wind chills in the low 30s.
Heading into President's Day, temperatures warm further, reaching the mid 40s Tuesday.
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