COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Changes start to move in Friday with early morning high clouds and light wind giving way to some mid-day sun and an increase in wind. Once the wind hits, temps will bump into the 70s and a few areas will get gusts to 35 mph or so. This air sinking off the mountains leads to really dry conditions and high fire danger today.

As we hit the afternoon snow increases over the mountains and becomes heavy at times Friday night. Scattered showers will continue over the ski resorts Saturday, but will pull back in coverage and intensity somewhat as the first wave lifts off to the northeast. Don’t worry, another one moves in late Saturday and picks the snow back up for Sunday.

As the first wave moves off the mountains onto the plains early Saturday, a very tight circulation in the mid-levels of the atmosphere may produce a quick period of wind driven snow on the backside of the circulation over the Pikes Peak Region. It may end up just north of the area, but it’s close enough, and a couple versions of StormCast are showing it making it into El Paso County, that I don’t want you to be surprised. Low visibility and quick accumulations of snow are possible in this quick burst. It’ll lift off to the northeast about as fast as it moves in. Don’t be surprised if you wake up to snow! Travelers up to Denver are most likely to be impacted and you should prepare accordingly.

Once this snow lifts northeast, the main feature of Saturday for most of the viewing area will be temperatures 20 degrees colder than the warmth of late and wind gusts between 20 and 40 mph to help you notice the cooldown. Showers pick back up over the mountains late Saturday and spread across the region for Sunday. By Sunday evening a couple inches of snow are expected over Colorado Springs and Pueblo with more over the higher terrain. The storm is still three days away and we’ll keep fine tuning these numbers, so stay tuned!

Snow will actually continue for a while Sunday night before decreasing early Monday morning.