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338
FXUS65 KBOU 301130
AFDBOU

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Denver/Boulder CO
530 AM MDT Tue Apr 30 2024

.KEY MESSAGES...

- Snow for the northern mountains through mid morning.

- Gusty west winds to 40 mph in/near foothills and over far
  northern Colorado.

- Cooler Wednesday night and Thursday with a chance of scattered
  showers and light mountain snow.

&&

.SHORT TERM /Through tonight/...
Issued at 312 AM MDT Tue Apr 30 2024

Radar showing a band of rain and mountain snow over northwest
Colorado and southern Wyoming in advance of an upper level trough.
This trough will race east-northeast this morning and be over
western Nebraska and South Dakota by early afternoon. As this area
rain and mountains moves across the northern mountains, expect it
to drop 1 to 5 inches of snow by mid morning. It quickly dries
behind the trough axis by late morning. Dry conditions are
expected east of the mountains with a westerly downslope flow
prevailing. A shallow cold front drops south across eastern
Colorado around sunrise, but downslope flow will exist above it.
The shallow cool airmass is expected to mix out and gusty westerly
winds to 30-40 mph are expected spread across the foothills and
far northern Colorado by noon. Surface low pressure trough forms
along the base of the foothills late in the day. This will cause
winds to turn easterly over the plains and transport moisture into
eastern Colorado tonight. A few weak showers will be possible
late tonight over the plains. Better chance for showers will be
over the northern mountains after midnight where the right
entrance of the jet could produce showers. After this morning`s
snow over the north central mountains, any additional
precipitation tonight is expected to be very light due to limit
moisture.

&&

.LONG TERM /Wednesday through Monday/...
Issued at 312 AM MDT Tue Apr 30 2024

Not too many changes in the long-term forecast package as an
unsettled pattern brings increasing chances of precipitation across
northeastern Colorado. Southwesterly flow and mid-level moisture
increase Wednesday as the first shortwave trough approaches
Colorado. This system mostly clips our area with majority of
upper level forcing staying to the north in Wyoming. MLCAPE values
remain weak and range between 100-200 J/kg. Additional, lapse
rates near 7 C/km and weak 3km shear values of 15-20 kts should
lead to scattered showers and an isolated thunderstorms or two for
the lower elevations. With scattered to numerous showers
continuing through Wednesday evening, light snow will occur for
elevations above 10k ft through Thursday. Highest accumulations of
3-6 inches could occur for the Park and Gore Ranges.

Thursday morning and afternoon, temperatures are slightly cooler.
The mountains and valleys With model guidance trending downwards on
shower coverage. Cross sections indicate a substantial amount of
dry air aloft between the 500-700mb layer. Thus, PoPs were also
lowered Thursday afternoon as showers could be more isolated
across the region. An additional shortwave trough arrives Friday
which increase precipitation chances once more. This pattern
continues through Saturday although, coverage of showers decrease
especially across the mountains.

500mb ensembles display a ridge building into the region by
Sunday. This update includes an increase to afternoon temperatures
Sunday into next week with majority of guidance favoring the
return of above normal temperatures.

&&

.AVIATION /12Z TAFS through 12Z Wednesday/...
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Issued at 530 AM MDT Tue Apr 30 2024

VFR to prevail through tonight. A cold front is pushing through
the Denver area at this time and will bring gusty north winds with
it. Winds direction then gets tricky. Expect winds to decrease
and turn northeast by 13Z. The winds then transition to the west-
northwest and increase as stronger winds aloft mix down. This is
expected to occur 17-18Z. The strongest winds are expected to be
in the 18Z to 21Z period with gusts to 30 knots possible. Winds
then decrease and turn clockwise, becoming an east to southeast
direction after 00Z Wednesday.
-- End Changed Discussion --

&&

.BOU WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
None.

&&

$$

SHORT TERM...Meier
LONG TERM...AD
AVIATION...Meier