Sunny and dry today, brief snow chances return Wednesday night

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - After a couple of rounds of scattered snow mostly in the higher elevations of the region yesterday, high pressure has ushered in drier air and plenty of sunshine for our Tuesday. We’ll continue to stay clear and dry into tonight and much of tomorrow, then a quick system briefly increases snow chances through the middle of the week.

Next 24 Hours

The morning has started off with mostly sunny to sunny skies, and we shouldn’t see too many changes to that pattern through the afternoon. Some scattered clouds will be most likely over the higher elevations while we continue to see plenty of sunshine in the valleys. Temperatures could wind up a few degrees cooler than yesterday in some locations, but expect upper 30s to lower 40s to be a pretty common range later this afternoon. Mostly clear to clear skies continue overnight tonight with lows dropping into the upper teens and lower to middle 20s, then clouds will gradually be on the increase through the day on Wednesday as some better moisture returns to the region.

Quick, Small Increase in Snow Chances

A disturbance is beginning to move across the Pacific Northwest today, bringing rain and snow to portions of Washington and Oregon. That same disturbance brings snow to the northern Rocky Mountains on Wednesday before dropping down into the Western Slope Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The first snowflakes will start falling along and mostly north of Interstate 70 by around the middle of Wednesday afternoon, then that snow will surge southward over Interstate 70 and around the Grand Mesa and the High Country into the evening. The central and southern portions of the region, from the Uncompahgre Plateau to the San Juan Mountains, will see their highest snow chances overnight Wednesday night through sunrise Thursday morning. Most of the snow should be wrapped up across the region by sunrise Thursday morning, but some scattered snow could continue to linger around some of the highest elevations through early Thursday evening. The higher elevations will see the best chances for snow, but some valley locations could see some snowflakes as well.

Expected Snowfall Totals

This isn’t expected to be a very significant snowfall event across the Western Slope. The valleys should see very little, if any accumulations, and even most of the higher elevations should only see between 1 and 2 inches of snow. Some of the highest elevations around Aspen and Vail, as well as just to the north of Interstate 70 near Rifle and Glenwood Springs could see some higher amounts of 2 to 4 inches, but we’re not anticipating very many accumulations of more than 4 inches.

Clearing out Once Again

Mostly sunny skies should start settling back into much of the Western Slope on Thursday with highs dropping into the lower and middle 30s, then sunny skies are back as we head into Friday with temperatures rebounding into the middle and upper 30s to lower 40s. Warmer air rushes back into the region this weekend as clouds start to increase once again. Partly to mostly cloudy skies are likely with highs surging into the middle and upper 40s. Rain and snow chances for now remain pretty low, but there have been indications of the potential for rain and snow at times in some of the forecast data for the weekend.

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