Winter Storm in Colorado, December 5 to 6, 2025

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Denver/Boulder CO
1147 PM MST Thu Dec 4 2025

.KEY MESSAGES...

- Heavy, wind driven snow event likely (>80% chance) for the
  mountains Friday night through Saturday night, with difficult
  travel conditions.

- Stronger winds at times into early next week.

- Milder temperatures ahead, with above normal temperatures by
  early next week.

&&

.SHORT TERM /Through Friday/...
Issued at 216 PM MST Thu Dec 4 2025

Water vapor satellite imagery showing increasing moisture heading
towards northern Colorado as a shortwave in the northwest flow aloft
nears Colorado. This will bring snow back to the northern mountains
for tonight and Friday. Cross sections show the moist layer being
somewhat shallow, from the surface to roughly 600mb. This will keep
snowfall amounts on the light side across the northern mountains.
Just enough snow however for a Winter Weather Advisory for Western
Grand and Western Jackson Counties where 4 to 8 inches of snow will
be possible tonight and Friday. For the rest of the mountains, up to
5 inches will be possible.

For areas east of the Continental Divide, lower surface pressure
will bring increasing west to northwest winds to the Front Range
mountains and foothills. Some of these gusty winds may spread east
of the foothills. Localized blowing snow will be possible, but
widespread impacts are not expected. Temperatures are expected to
run near to slightly below normal tonight and Friday with highs in
the upper 30s to lower 40s across northeast Colorado. Can't rule out
a little light rain/snow over the far northeast plains as the
shortwave moves across the region. Any precipitation will be very
light.

&&

.LONG TERM /Friday night through Thursday/...
Issued at 216 PM MST Thu Dec 4 2025

Main story of the long term period is the potentially significant
snow/wind event across the mountains this weekend.

While snow will be ongoing to start the forecast period, cross-
sections are fairly meager with the depth of moisture embedded in
the west-northwesterly flow aloft. That will be short lived, as a
another shortwave races towards the mountains late Friday night
into Saturday. Model cross-sections show well-aligned WNWerly flow
with moisture deepening to around 400mb by Saturday morning. As a
result, orographic snow should quickly pick up across the
mountains, with periods of moderate to heavy snow likely through
most of the day Saturday. Considerable blowing snow is also
expected, with 30-50kt boundary layer flow likely leading to at
least a few gusts of 50-60 mph across favored terrain features.
While gusty winds may reduce snow ratios a bit during the period
of heavy snow, the combination of snow and wind is expected to
lead to widespread travel issues across a majority of our mountain
passes. We went with an upgrade to a Winter Storm Warning, and
also tweaked the timing a bit to emphasize the period of highest
impact across the I-70 corridor. It's possible some impacts extend
into Sunday, but a majority of the accumulating snow should fall
before midnight Saturday night.

Meanwhile, most of the lower elevations should be fairly dry with
a modest warming trend over the weekend. There may be a few light
rain or snow showers on Saturday as the shortwave passes, but
guidance is far from enthusiastic about precipitation chances for
most of the I-25 corridor. Highs on Saturday should reach the mid
to upper 40s, with low to mid 40s on Sunday.

As we enter next week, guidance is in reasonably good agreement
with the upper level pattern, as northwest flow continues to
prevail across the western CONUS. There will likely be a few
periods of snow across the mountains during the week as a few
shortwaves pass near the region. There may also be a period of
stronger wind gusts on Tuesday or Tuesday night following the
passage of a stronger shortwave to the north. Forecast confidence
decreases quite a bit by the latter half of next week, though some
deterministic guidance tries to bring much warmer weather to the
Denver metro and plains closer to next weekend.

&&

.AVIATION /06Z TAFS through 06Z Saturday/...
Issued at 1138 PM MST Thu Dec 4 2025

VFR conditions expected throughout the TAF period. There will be
more variability in the winds tonight than normal. At DEN and
APA, strong drainage flow with gusts up to 20 knots will be
possible with period of light and variable winds at times. At BJC,
there will be periodic westerly gusts up to 30 knots possible.

BJC will continue to see sporadic westerly gusts throughout the
day on Friday with the highest likelihood of westerly gusts in the
afternoon. DEN and APA may see either light northeast winds or
west-northwesterly winds with gusts up to 15 knots. The northeast
winds are more likely so that was put in the TAF.

Moderate to strong drainage flow will develop Friday night.

&&

.BOU WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
Winter Weather Advisory until 11 PM MST Friday for COZ031.

Winter Storm Warning from 11 PM Friday to 11 PM MST Saturday for
COZ031-033-034.

&&

SHORT TERM...12
LONG TERM....Hiris
AVIATION...Danielson

Hazardous Weather Outlook
National Weather Service Denver/Boulder CO
1129 AM MST Thu Dec 4 2025

COZ030>051-051830-
Jackson County Below 9000 Feet-
West Jackson and West Grand Counties Above 9000 Feet-
Grand and Summit Counties Below 9000 Feet-
South and East Jackson/Larimer/North and Northeast Grand/
Northwest Boulder Counties Above 9000 Feet-
South and Southeast Grand/West Central and Southwest Boulder/
Gilpin/Clear Creek/Summit/North and West Park Counties Above
9000 Feet-Larimer and Boulder Counties Between 6000 and 9000 Feet-
Jefferson and West Douglas Counties Above 6000 Feet/Gilpin/Clear
Creek/Northeast Park Counties Below 9000 Feet-
Central and Southeast Park County-
Larimer County Below 6000 Feet/Northwest Weld County-
Boulder And Jefferson Counties Below 6000 Feet/West Broomfield
County-
North Douglas County Below 6000 Feet/Denver/West Adams and
Arapahoe Counties/East Broomfield County-
Elbert/Central and East Douglas Counties Above 6000 Feet-
Northeast Weld County-Central and South Weld County-Morgan County-
Central and East Adams and Arapahoe Counties-
North and Northeast Elbert County Below 6000 Feet/North Lincoln
County-
Southeast Elbert County Below 6000 Feet/South Lincoln County-
Logan County-Washington County-Sedgwick County-Phillips County-
1129 AM MST Thu Dec 4 2025

This hazardous weather outlook is for northeast and north central
Colorado.

.DAY ONE...Today and Tonight

Snow returns to the northern mountains tonight, heaviest towards
Rabbit Ears Pass. Roads are expected to become slick and hazardous
overnight in the mountains.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Friday through Wednesday

Additional mountain snow is expected Friday evening through
Sunday morning. Travel could be very difficult across the
mountains Friday night through Sunday morning, due to heavy
snowfall and blowing snow.

Across the plains, dry conditions are expected this weekend into
next week, with a gradual warming trend likely.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

Spotter activation will not be needed today or tonight.