Temperatures have been on the mild side once again in the Denver area and along the I-25 Corridor today with afternoon readings reaching the mid 50s to low 60s! It was also a pleasant day in the mountains with less wind and highs in the 30s. Another quick and dramatic change is on the way tonight and Wednesday. A fast moving cold front will spill southward from Wyoming and the Dakotas and bring much colder air into eastern Colorado by morning. While Denver was enjoying readings near 60 this afternoon, Rapid City, SD hovered around 10 degrees! Much of the Great Plains and Mississippi Valley is in the grip of some very cold air. Afternoon temperatures were in the single digits in Minneapolis and Chicago and only in the mid 20s in St. Louis. The cold air will drop all the way to Dixie tonight with lows dropping to freezing all the way to the Gulf Coast! Colorado is on the western edge of this large Arctic air mass and it is drifting in and out of the state. The cold air is sloshing back and forth across the high plains almost like an ocean tide on a beach! We will get a new wave of cold air late tonight and Wednesday, followed by milder weather again Thursday as the dense, cold air slips off to lower elevations in Kansas and Nebraska. Yet another wave of chilly air will arrive on Friday for Denver and the eastern plains, only to give way to milder conditions over the weekend. The Arctic air is quite dense and as such as trouble flowing up and over the mountains and foothills, so temperatures to the west will not be seeing the same periodic shifts as the cold air will mainly impact the eastern plains. These surges of cold air do not have a lot of moisture with them, so snow amounts will stay light with each new wave of cold. Both Wednesday and Friday may feature an inch or so of snow for Denver and the eastern plains. Nonetheless, the timing of the snows will likely be for the morning drive, so be ready for slick and slow conditions. One thing that these temperature fluctuations do cause is potholes! The thawing allows melt water to flow into any crack in the pavement. When temperatures drop again, that water freezes and the ice expands, forcing the cracks to get bigger and eventually loosen chunks of asphalt or concrete. Be careful on the roads as these potholes develop fast and often look like just an innocent puddle of water. The weather roller coaster will continue to for into the weekend. Saturday and most of Sunday will be dry and a bit milder, followed by a slight chance for snow late Sunday. It is too early to say whether or not the Sunday system will be strong enough to impact the Bronco Game. The Arctic air mass across the eastern half of the nation will moderate next week and shift a little farther to the east. That should bring an end to the current Roller Coaster ride of temperatures as next week will return to a less dramatic weather pattern over the region.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 22:45:15 +0000
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