4-9-19 Sam’s weather forecast discussion

Today: Warm, breezy and sunny. The main concern for this afternoon will be the critical fire danger. Nearly every location on or east of I-25 in Colorado is under a red flag warning starting at noon and going till 9pm tonight. Colorado Springs will approach a high-temperature record today, I have us hitting 79, the record is 80. So we shall see. Combine that with relative humidity levels down to 11% and wind gusts to 35mph, you have yourself high fire danger.

Tonight: Temperatures remaining fairly warm overnight, staying in the high 40’s for the Colorado Springs area and partly cloudy. Winds will stay relatively light at about 5-10mph but wouldn’t be surprised to get the occasional wind gust to 20mph. All of the rain and snow headed our way will stay well north.

Tomorrow: This is when things get interesting. Starting off the morning partly cloudy with a light breeze as wind gusts will stay below 25mph. An important thing to mention here is the wind will be southwesterly in the morning and then when the cold front hits us the winds will very rapidly change to northerly and intensify. Wind gusts will hit between 40-55mph tomorrow afternoon/evening. When this wind shift happens, know the precipitation is not far behind. It’s possible we see rain and scattered thunderstorms cross through El Paso County on the leading edge of this storm as temperatures will be too warm for snow initially. Then once all of the cold air gets to us, that rain will change over to snow. Although snow accumulation will be relatively minimal in Colorado Springs, the wind in addition to the snow will cause some issues like limited visibility and just overall tricky traveling conditions. Locations north of Colorado Springs will see heavier snow accumulations. Monument is looking at approximately 2-4″ and Denver will be closer to the 4-6″ range. Blizzard-like conditions are likely in northern Colorado.