Here in Vermont, and practically everywhere else, people say if you don't like the weather, wait a minute and it will change.
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| Snow on leafy trees, St. Albans, Vermont, October, 2018. Similar scenes might play out in Denver on Tuesday. Really! |
Vermont has nothing on Colorado, though, in terms of abrupt weather changes, and places like Denver are in for a real doozy of a switch.
Check out the forecast for Denver: Sunday will be sunny and hot, with a high near 98 degrees. Monday will be almost as toasty, with a high of 90 degrees. So far, so good.
Then, Monday night, the forecast calls for rain or snow, with a low of 35 degrees. Some snow would continue most of the day Tuesday.
You read that right. That's a bit of a change in the weather isn't it?
The Rockies and high Plains are notorious for weather whiplash like this, much more so than us in the East. We can certainly see dramatic changes, but nothing like the Front Range of the Rockies.
It remains to be seen how much snow actually manages to accumulate in and around Denver. Heck, it might end up being a couple degrees to warm for snow and they'd get stuck with a cold rain. However, the higher in elevation you go, even in the suburbs just west of Denver, it will probably snow at least a little.
Ground temperatures are extremely warm after an extended hot summer, and as noted, it will remain hot until just a few hours before the flakes fly. That will limit accumulations. At least on the ground.
The trouble would come as it will be easier for the snow to accumulate on trees than on the warm ground. Trees are fully leafed out in and around Denver, after all. The trees leaves won't have the benefit of the warm ground, so snow could easily accumulate on them. That would be a problem.
As warm a city as Denver usually is, they are prone to September snows every once in awhile. If a snowfall does materialize there early next week, it will be among the earliest on record, but not THE earliest.
On September 3, 1961, snow accumulated to 4.3 inches at Denver's Stapleton Airport and almost a foot piled up in the western suburbs, as noted on Twitter by CBS News Meteorologist Jeff Berardelli. Denver is the Mile High City, after all, so they have elevation working for them in the snow department.
"Winter" won't last long in Denver, as temperatures by Thursday are expected to rise into the reasonable upper 60s.
For some areas along the Front Range, this will certainly be the end of the growing and gardening season. Laramie, Wyoming expects snow showers and a high (!!!) temperature of just 35 degrees on Tuesday, with a Tuesday night low of 20 degrees.
The weather pattern causing this is referred to as being very amplified, which means the northward bulges and southward plunges in the jet stream are bigger than usual.
A massive northward bulge, or ridge will bring record heat to the West Coast over the weekend, especially in California.
A corresponding big southward plunge in the jet stream is bringing a shot of cold air straight from northern Canada to the Front Range. Which is why it will either snow or bring a very chilly rain to Denver.
What goes down must go back up with this super wavy jet stream. That means another northward bulge, or ridge is setting up over the East Coast and the Maritimes of Canada, which I mentioned the other day.
This puts us here in Vermont in a pretty sweet spot, actually. Today through Sunday will be nice, with generally sunny daytime skies and temperatures in the comfortable 70s.
This set up will eventually pump some warmth and humidity toward us during the upcoming week. It won't be record heat, like on the West Coast, but it will be a summer reprise. Again, there doesn't seem to be anything extreme in the cards for us Green Mountain Boys and Girls.
Eventually, that cold front that'll bring the snowy weather to Colorado will make it here. But don't worry. It's not going to snow once it comes through. First, this front will get blocked by that East Coast and southeastern Canada ridge, so gawd knows when the cold front will finally get here. The best guess is maybe next Friday. Before that, it will stall out somewhere well to our west.
When that front finally limps through, chances are it will just drop our temperatures down to average for September. Nothing wild like Denver.
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