Boulder, Colorado 7 Day Weather Forecast

Wx Forecast - Wx Discussion - Wx Aviation

212
FXUS65 KBOU 220515
AFDBOU

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Denver/Boulder CO
1015 PM MST Fri Feb 21 2025

.KEY MESSAGES...

- Warmer and dry this weekend and early next week.

&&

.UPDATE...
Issued at 754 PM MST Fri Feb 21 2025

Drier air has spread across the area resulting in clear skies east
of the mountains. Satellite shows mostly clouds skies over Grand,
Jackson, and Summit Counties where moisture is trapped in the
mountains. Cross shows this area slowly drying through the night. We
probably see some clouds linger through the night before
clear/mostly clear skies prevail for Saturday. Adjusted the sky
cover forecast for this. Rest of the forecast is on track with no
other changes planned.

&&

.SHORT TERM /Through Saturday/...
Issued at 237 PM MST Fri Feb 21 2025

Stratocumulus deck has been slow to erode, but it`s going. We`ll
have mostly cloudy skies with an overall gentle southwest wind
across the plains by mid evening. This will provide some mixing,
and there will be some warm advection. There`s some potential for
patchy fog in low lying areas, but the places that usually get
this didn`t have snow last night. We`ve opted to leave that out
for now. The shallow cloud deck upstream of the Front Range will
be slower to dissipate and there will likely be a little bit left
most of the night.

For Saturday, we`ll have full sunshine and that gentle downslope
wind in most places. There will be some increase in wind in the
afternoon over the mountain ridges and near the Wyoming border,
and maybe some high clouds arriving late in the day. Melting snow
will restrain the warming where it is significant, but we`ll still
be close to 50 across the plains.

&&

.LONG TERM /Saturday night through Friday/...
Issued at 237 PM MST Fri Feb 21 2025

A major pattern change is on the way this weekend and it will
continue through next week. The main aspect of this pattern change
will be warmth!

Colorado will be under ridging aloft Sunday through Tuesday. There
will be strong warm air advection along with downslope, westerly
winds in the low to mid levels. 700 mb temperatures will warm to 4-6
C each of these days and highs will likely reach the 60s on the
plains. The daily record highs for Denver are in the low 70s Sunday
through Tuesday and it is possible, although not likely, that the
temperature approaches those numbers each day. The only weather
concern each of these days will be gusty winds especially in the
Front Range mountains and foothills. Our forecast area will have
northwesterly flow over it on the northeast extent of the ridge
which will be strong enough to produce wind gusts above 50s in
the foothills.

On Wednesday, there will be a shortwave trough that moves through
our forecast area. This trough will have some Pacific moisture
with it that will produce light snow showers in the mountains. A
cold front will move through the plains which will drop
temperatures 15-20 degrees on Wednesday. The main focus will be on
the gusty winds. Gusts could reach 50 mph on the plains and 60 mph
over the mountains.

A return to ridging and warmth will occur on Thursday and into the
following weekend. The majority of the ensemble members have the
plains reaching the 60s during this time. Ensembles have a decent
signal for another system to arrive the first work week of March.
This may bring snow to our entire forecast area.

&&

.AVIATION /06Z TAFS through 06Z Sunday/...
Issued at 1013 PM MST Fri Feb 21 2025

VFR conditions thru the period. SSW winds will linger thru early
Sat aftn and then become light and variable by 21Z.

&&

.BOU WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
None.

&&

$$

UPDATE...Meier
SHORT TERM...Gimmestad
LONG TERM...Danielson
AVIATION...RPK