Weather Rollercoaster Hits Western Colorado As Temperatures Finally Rise

Western Colorado’s weather identity crisis continues.

After mountain snow and freeze warnings earlier this week, temperatures are finally starting to climb back in the other direction.

But first, one more cold night is on the way for parts of northwest Colorado.

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Waking Up with Freeze Warnings Around Colorado

Freeze Warnings remain in effect through Wednesday morning for the lower basins around the Yampa region as overnight clearing skies help temperatures drop below freezing again.

So if you’ve already gone all-in on summer gardening because last week hit 90 degrees, hopefully you kept the frost blankets handy.

The good news is this should be the last real shot of below-normal temperatures for a while.

Forecasters say a pattern shift is already underway, with high pressure and ridging beginning to rebuild across the West. Translation: warmer, calmer weather starts taking over heading into the weekend.

Wednesday still runs a little cool by May standards, but after that, temperatures steadily rebound and trend above normal again through the weekend.

Warming Up Again, But For How Long?

Because apparently Western Colorado skipped spring and decided to alternate directly between “fire danger” and “freeze warning.”

We’re not completely done with precipitation chances, though. The mountains will still see occasional afternoon showers through the rest of the week, especially across the central and southern ranges on Wednesday afternoon.

Read More: Colorado’s 8 Geological Regions: A Complete Guide

Most of that looks pretty minor, with only the highest elevations having any real chance at light snow accumulation.

Another weak system slides through Thursday and could bring scattered rain showers, mainly north of I-70 for now, though forecasters are still ironing out exactly where the better moisture sets up.

After that, it settles into a more typical late-spring pattern: warmer afternoons, a few mountain showers here and there, and everybody trying to remember where they packed away the shorts three days ago.