070
FXUS65 KBOU 242344
AFDBOU

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Denver/Boulder CO
444 PM MST Sat Jan 24 2026

.KEY MESSAGES...

- Continued arctic cold through Monday morning.

- Additional light snowfall expected Sunday, 0.5-3" urban corridor
and plains with 3-5" for the mountains.

- Warming and drying trend kicks back in on Monday just because...

&&

.SHORT TERM /Through Sunday/...
Issued at 203 PM MST Sat Jan 24 2026

Between waves of snow today, outside the Palmer Divide and the
mountains, with some clearing skies made it feel several degrees
warmer than on Friday over the urban corridor and the plains. It
really stopped snowing in the mountains or along the Palmer but I`m
not sure I hear anyone complaining.

Skies continue to clear for the most part tonight into Sunday
morning, though some cirrus may overspread around midnight tonight
and then wane a tad by sunrise. Reason this is brought up, overnight
temperatures. A little wind/mixing will continue, like it did
Saturday morning, so we will radiate nicely with the lighter winds
and clearing skies, but may not end up as cold as we did on Saturday
morning. Still single digits to negative single digits from the
urban corridor into the plains and the mountains.

Sunday, fun-day in terms of forecasting temperatures, reinforcing
shot of arctic air, and snow banding. Confidence is high, 80+%, of
accumulating snowfall over the urban corridor and the adjacent
plains Sunday afternoon into the evening as another arctic front
barrels through the region. High temperatures could easily occur
right around noon and then the cold air starts to ooze in from the
north, along with higher level clouds, with a bigger punch by
mid/late afternoon. This is when the moisture convergence, albeit
less than ideal moisture content, will be at it`s highest and we see
a 3-4 hour window of wind driven snow showers and some resemblance
of weak upslope in the foothills and Palmer Divide. We did bump up
the snow ratios across much of the region by an inch or two, just
given how cold the air coming into the region will be. Even with
paltry 0.01-0.03" of liquid we could squeeze out a little over an
inch in the urban corridor and adjacent plains.

Sunday night into Monday morning, in the wake of the fresh snowfall
and clearing skies behind the front will definitely be the coldest
thus far this winter. EFI is showing a higher EFI and a slightly
high SOT over much of the region leading to a much colder than
normal, outside of the reforecast climatology, for overnight lows.
We could easily have numerous locations drop to -10F over the

&&

.LONG TERM /Sunday night through Saturday/...
Issued at 203 PM MST Sat Jan 24 2026

Monday we start the warming trend as stronger winds aloft begin to
shove the arctic airmass to the east and away from our region. We`re
expecting high temperatures to be right around seasonal averages
which would be about 20 to 25F degrees above where we end up on
Sunday. Building ridge to our west, where have we heard this before,
keeps north-northwest flow aloft with little in the way of embedded
vort maxes riding down the east side. Not to discount Thursday with
a slightly better chance, 20-30%, of higher elevation snow,
otherwise it`s dry mist places. Each day next week we add a few
degrees onto the previous days highs - back into the low-50s F by
Wednesday through the remainder of the work week.

&&

.AVIATION /00Z TAFS through 00Z Monday/...
Issued at 435 PM MST Sat Jan 24 2026

Generally, anticipating prevailing VFR conditions for all
terminals through at least sunrise Sunday. There are lingering
SCT-BKN CIGS 025-060 in the Denver area and south as of this
writing, but these should displace southward away from the
terminals within the next couple of hours. Current NE flow will
transition to SW drainage winds this evening, remaining in place
overnight.

Sunday, a cold front will progress south through the terminals
17-19Z, with a shift to a more N/NW component possible as early as
16Z. Expect a few gusts near 20 kts with the FROPA. In terms of
cloud cover, SCT bases 050-070 are favored after sunrise, with
increasing likelihood of BKN-OVC CIGS 051.

&&

$$

SHORT TERM...Heavener
LONG TERM...Heavener
AVIATION...BRQ

NWS BOU Office Area Forecast Discussion