Author: John Holley

The occasional light rain, mostly north metro around Boulder out to DIA, should have dried off by 9am.  Then from north to south, starting around noon Louisville environs to oneish toward Park Meadows, there will be occasional thunder bumpers and they’ll hang in until around 3.  Midlevel broken layer after that—broken means more than half of the sky obscured, midlevel is around 2 miles above the surface we’re stumbling on—going nicely to scattered clouds by around 8pm.  

What’s causing all that, okay. The jet stream, up there around 6 miles above where I’ve got my feet propped on the table, is doing it’s jet thing. Viewed from space it would be like a big “U” along a line about Seattle-Phoenix east to Albuquerque, then rushing back to the less screwy Canadian environs along a Albuquerque-Fargo line. That U is pulling a little moisture into us from the southeast (air rotates counter-clockwise around low pressure this side of the equator, and a U in an airmass, top opening toward Canada, is a low pressure fold. We’ll dry just a little as that jet moves east before the lower level—surface to 2 or 3 miles above my wiggling toes—trough pushes in from the west and gives us the thunderstorms around 3.  

That stuff shouldn’t make severe cover-the-car levels in the metro and should be out by early evening. As it moves east toward Lincoln County they could make the severe level with hail so if you’re going east go early.  

When it dries out tonight it should stay that way Saturday and Sunday, probably through early Thursday anyway. Tomorrow’s temps should be 10-20 degrees warmer than today, with about seasonal norms returning through Wednesday.  Good days for protesting.

Nice day, if a bit cool at times. Rain is moving in from the southwest, it’s already happening in north metro moving from the southwest to the northeast in a line just south of Boulder toward Greeley.  There’s a few cells over the mountains southwest of the southern part of the metro, a little south of Highway 285, that will move into and across the south end over the next couple of hours. Nothing severe out there, maybe a couple isolated thunder bumpers moving across the metro.  The bumpers should be done by 7, little spots getting some small amount of rain may continue through the evening.

Looking for more water tomorrow, and occasional thunderstorms happening after about 2PM.  

Nice and cool, isn’t it?  A little wet later, too.  The slow moving front picked up a little speed with the mid and upper level troughs pushing, it’s SW-NE across southeastern Colorado now.  

Not your imagination, north of I70/I76 there will be some smoke coming in from Arizona, both surface and aloft, mid afternoon. Some upslope on the backside of the front pushing in a little moisture, so we’ll see some rain afternoon into evening, not much instability so thunderstorms will be few. We won’t get a lot of water out of it, highs today and tomorrow mid 70s. It’ll stay cloudy tonight, lows 50s again. Wet again Friday, a chance for a few more thunderstorms but they shouldn’t get to the severe level.  

The upper trough holding all that together will move on, so drier and warmer Saturday and Sunday, getting into the upper 80s.  

A hearty thanks to our civil servants in NOAA for doing what they do, including this stuff I’m getting from them, in spite of the pandemic, in spite of the administration telling them what to say the weather is.

Hot again today, but 1-3 degrees cooler than yesterday.  Highs mid-90s along I25 corridor, upper 90s on the plains up NE. Mountains warm, 70s to low 80s in the valleys.  

So, no bicycle trips out I76 into Nebraska, ‘kay? Have heard people actually do that.

We’ve got a mid and upper level trough moving down from the northwest, dragging some moisture with it. A slow moving front at the surface will move across Denver, about a Denver-Sterling alignment, and it’ll lower those afternoon winds from Denver to the northeast today.  In front of it, however, southeast of us, we’ll see southwest winds sustained in the upper teens with gusts to around 30. Dry out there, winds, hot, fire danger in the high range in the plains southeast of us.  

Southwest winds. The other day I overheard someone pointing the direction the wind was blowing to, north, and said it was a north wind. Nope. Winds are named for the direction they come from, not go to. Whatever blows off the neighbor’s roof and hits your car is coming from the direction you should name the wind for. Remember the Cheech and Chong bit, East Westchester Northstars, champions of the Southern Conference? Here’s one; The Southwest wind Southeast of us is an airmass moving Northeast driven by a front moving in from the Northwest. Got it?

Mountains will cool this evening as the mid/upper level trough brings us in the metro cooler air after about 8 this evening. Around howl-time. 

So, Thursday-Friday should be better temp wise, highs 70s in the metro.  Might even see some showers tomorrow night, not enough water for big thunderstorms. Friday cloudy and some showers, thunderstorms—possibly pretty good ones—later in the day.   

Warming Saturday through Monday, mid-90s Monday.