Denver Weather: Sunday's Arrival Of Spring Will Be Followed By Monday Snow
MORE: Pleasant First Day Of Spring Precedes First Alert Weather Day On Monday
DENVER (CBS4) - It wouldn't be springtime in the Rockies without some snow and this year Mother Nature will kick off the season without delay. Spring officially arrives in the Mountain Time Zone at 9:33 a.m. on Sunday and we expect mostly cloudy skies and mild temperatures ahead of a strong cold front. By Sunday night and Monday morning much of the state can expect to see snow.
As with all storms this time of the year the impact it'll have will depend on the exact track of low pressure at the surface. Right now it is forecast to move across central New Mexico during the day on Monday before turning northeast into central Kansas on Tuesday.
That track is too far away to bring major impacts to the state except for those closest to the low itself, such as the southeast plains, where a Winter Storm Watch is in effect for Monday afternoon and Monday night.
Should the storm track shift north by as little as 75 to 100 miles the forecast will completely change for places such as Denver and the Front Range. In that case we'd go from talking about a minor storm to one with more substantial impacts.
Above you will see two different computer forecast models for Denver and the Front Range. The top model shows the lower end of potential snowfall with the bottom model showing the higher end of the current forecast. Regardless of how much falls the highest totals should be on the west and south sides of the city where the terrain is higher. Keep in mind if the track of the surface low pressure shifts to the north as it travels across New Mexico on Monday, these totals will change substantially.
The same two models for the statewide perspective can be seen below. Overall as it stands right now this is not going to be a high impact storm for the state because of the low's path of travel being a bit too far south of Colorado. The one exception could be the far southeast plains where several inches could fall from Trinidad to Springfield and in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
As the low pulls away on Tuesday we'll see strong northerly winds develop along and east of Interstate 25 along with scattered snow showers. Temperatures will run several degrees below normal for this time of year for the first half of the upcoming week.