124
FXUS65 KBOU 292045
AFDBOU

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Denver/Boulder CO
145 PM MST Mon Dec 29 2025

.KEY MESSAGES...

- Warming trend through Wednesday with dry and mostly sunny
  conditions regionwide.

- Light snow expected for the mountains Thursday afternoon through
  Friday, favoring the Park Range.

- The lower elevations will remain warm and dry through the
  weekend.

&&

.DISCUSSION /Through Monday/...
Issued at 108 PM MST Mon Dec 29 2025

A cool air remains firmly in place today, easily giving us our
coldest day of the upcoming week, with much of the lower
elevations surrounding the Denver metro and South Platte River
Valley still in the 30`s as they sit below a lingering inversion.

That cold air will begin to scour out notably on Tuesday as high
pressure over the western CONUS encroaches on Colorado, including
in our mountains. The high valleys, although not quite as cold as
this morning when they saw temperatures dip into the -10 to -20F
range, will remain cold tonight with the coldest locations
dropping below zero. Meanwhile the lower elevations should climb
into the low to mid 50`s, with abundant sun throughout the region.

Temperatures will continue to warm into Wednesday as high pressure
expands eastward. Expect continued dry conditions will only a
modest increase in cloud cover. Dry and much warmer than normal
conditions will extend all the way through this weekend for our
plains and urban corridor, with very minor day-to-day temperature
fluctuations.

Conversely, the mountains will have a more distinct change come
Thursday afternoon into Friday, when a transition to westerly flow
aloft and the emergence of a weak shortwave most prominent at the
700b level will boost moisture and bring some light snowfall.
Beyond the increased moisture and modest orographic flow, there
will be little in the way of synoptic support to enhance snowfall,
so accumulations and travel impacts should be relatively minor.
The Park Range will again be favored in this pattern, with
approximately a 75% chance of exceeding 4" of snow. Those
probabilities drop to less than 10% for the I-70 corridor.
Forecast confidence for the high country in particular decreases
considerably for the weekend and beyond with many mixed signals in
ensemble guidance.

&&

.AVIATION /18Z TAFS through 18Z Tuesday/...
Issued at 1015 AM MST Mon Dec 29 2025

VFR conditions will prevail for all terminals through the TAF
period. Light winds will favor an ENE direction through this
afternoon before a clockwise rotation towards southerly drainage
flow this evening. A similar diurnal wind pattern is expected
Tuesday.

&&

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

&&

$$

DISCUSSION...BRQ
AVIATION...BRQ