An upper-level storm digging southeast out of Utah likely develops a mid-level circulation early Thursday. This is a good set-up for welcome rain and wet, heavy, spring snow in southern Colorado as we pull low-level moisture from the Gulf of Mexico into the storm and toward the foothills and mountains. Because the storm isn’t as cold as the last few systems, it also means some parts of southern Colorado will get rain.

There is general agreement in the expected snow pattern and magnitude over southern Colorado later this week. It’ll be a wet, heavy, moisture-laden spring snow. Biggest work to do is the foothills west of Denver….going to depend how far north/south the storm goes.

The snow level will start at about 7,000′ Wednesday afternoon and drop to 5,000′ by Thursday morning. That makes impacts a bit challenging in trying to figure out how the roads are going to do. As a generality for the places that do get snow, the higher you are the more likely it’ll be that the roads hold snow. For the heart of Colorado Springs a good chunk of Thursday may have wet roads with snow sticking to cars, trees, grass and decks. We’ll keep a close eye on this over the next few days.

Regardless of who gets rain and who gets snow and how the roads are, the rain and melted down snow may end up being between .5 and 1″ over the heart of the viewing area. We need this water!