Today’s Forecast:
Twenty-four hours can make quite the difference - after the lingering flurries Wednesday morning, high pressure will be large and in charge today as it builds across the western U.S. You'll walk outside to temperatures in the 20s, 30s and 40s this morning. Highs will climb to the 50s and 60s this afternoon. As warm as we're getting here, it's also worth putting into context the extremes our current national pattern is providing.
Yesterday, Los Angeles broke their daily high temperature record with a high of 87 - and they're forecast to hit that mark again today. Meanwhile, Orlando is forecast to hit 60 degrees, with a high of 30 in New York. In other words - Florida is colder than Southern California and Southern Colorado, while the east experiences the winter our mountains so desperately need.
You can expect sunshine all day with modest northwesterly downslope breezes. It will be a nice outdoor day. Be prepared for pockets of mud on trails as the warm temperatures melt lingering pockets of ice and thin snow.
Colorado Springs forecast: High: 61; Low: 35. After warming into the middle 40s on Wednesday, today's high in the lower 60s will bring back a spring-like feel to our forecast.
Pueblo forecast: High: 66; Low: 27. Sunshine and warming highs will come courtesy of a strong ridge of high pressure building into the western third of the country on Thursday. Highs this afternoon will be more than 15 degrees above average.
Canon City forecast: High: 63; Low: 36. Today's forecast will be much warmer than yesterday, and will feel more like early April than early February.
Woodland Park forecast: High: 53; Low: 29. After snow Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, our weather today will be bright and mild, with NW wind sustained at around 10 mph this afternoon.
Tri-Lakes forecast: High: 50s; Low: 20s/30s. Thursday's forecast will be great for any outdoor activities, from hiking to mountain biking to a walk around the neighborhood. Today's highs will climb into the 50s across northern El Paso County.
Plains forecast: High: 60s; Low: 20s/30s. Sunshine, light breezes and 60s can be expected on Thursday as highs warm by as much as 10-15 degrees from what we saw on Wednesday. During the afternoon, we will see NW breezes sustained around 10-15 mph.
Walsenburg and Trinidad forecast: High: 50s/60s; Low: 20s/30s. Thursday's forecast will be beautiful, but more like early spring than the middle of winter. Highs this afternoon will be as much as 10-15 degrees above average.
Mountains forecast: High: 40s; Low: 20s. An April-like weather pattern will unfortunately lead to more melting in the mountains on Thursday. Instead of building our snowpack, the warm air will not be good news for our state's struggling ski areas.
Extended outlook forecast:
The big blue H continues to slowly shift east over the next several days and temperatures will remain well above average statewide as a result. In Colorado Springs and Pueblo, expect continued highs in the 60s. On Friday, winds will turn upslope in the afternoon out of the southeast.
Then, on Saturday, downslope breezes will overspread Southern Colorado. This northwesterly flow will favor gap regions, and the air will be very dry. This will lead to elevated fire danger concerns for some parts of the area. The warm and dry pattern continues into early next week.
Eventually the ridge will break down, and we'll turn more unsettled towards the middle of next week. This will lead to cooler temperatures, and chances for rain and snow. We are still too far out from this shift to dive into the specifics (e.g. the timing and precise impacts), but the signal for this pattern flip to occur is strong. This same flip is also likely to bring significant snowfall to the mountains.
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Curious about the First Alert 5 Weather Storm Impact Scale? Check out our cheatsheet explainer.
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