Time to dust off the skis. The first snow of the season is coming to Colorado’s northern mountains.
Some of Colorado’s highest peaks will get their first snows of the season on Wednesday night and into Thursday. While the snow will likely only fall at around 10,000 feet or above in the northern mountains, it should be enough that it’ll be visible for many come Thursday morning.
Snow accumulations are expected to be light and mainly confined to the Elkhead, Park and Medicine Bow Ranges. Some snow could also sneak closer to some of the I-70 mountains, in the northern Gore and Flat Top Ranges. Again, accumulations are expected to be light, and mainly confined to Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
Parts of neighboring Utah and Wyoming saw their first snowfall on Tuesday morning, as a potent upper area of low pressure drew in enough cold air and moisture to dust the highest elevations.
Wow! Here's our first snow of the season! This is Bald Mountain in the Uintahs–about 12,000 feet!
— Ron Bird (@KUTVRon)
In particular, some of central and northern Wyoming’s mountains
To be clear, this is typical, if not a bit later than usual. Normally, Colorado’s highest elevations will see their first snows in late August or the first week of September. The first fall fronts of the season will usually drag in enough cold air to bring a bit of snow to Colorado’s highest elevations.
But, a warm start to September – following a warm August – has postponed some of the mountains’ first snows a bit deeper into September this year.
Denver’s average first snow is on October 18th, although that’s trended a bit later in recent years. And yes, no snow is in the forecast for the Front Range, though a few storms could come from the same system, .
