While it certainly hasn’t felt like winter this past week, the Christmas weekend is looking to bring some snow to Colorado after all to boost the holiday cheer.
The weather could still change by the time the storm hits, but the Denver metro can expect to see anywhere from 1 to 4 inches to accumulate on Christmas Eve, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Zach Hiris.
While that doesn’t sound like much, even 1 inch of snow on the ground Christmas morning is enough for the National Weather Service to classify the holiday a white Christmas.
“Even though we’re still a ways out from this event, there’s a good chance for light snow accumulation across the metro,” Hiris said. “My guess is we’ll still have at least a little on the ground come Christmas.”
According to Hiris, the mountains will start seeing light snow Saturday morning that will spread to the plains by Saturday night. Most of the snowfall in the metro area will fall Saturday night into Sunday morning.
“Most of the snow will be wrapped by Christmas Day,” Hiris said. “But there might be a chance of light flurries or snow showers, particularly for those further east.”
With temperatures dipping into the teens overnight on Christmas Eve, as long as there’s snow on the ground Sunday night, it’ll be there Monday morning for Christmas, Hiris said.
High temperatures on Christmas will hover in the low to mid-30s, keeping the snow on the ground as long as possible for holiday fun, according to National Weather Service forecasters.
Generally, weather experts say 2 to 4 inches are needed for the best sledding conditions, so if the inches stack up it might be time to bring the sleds out and check out the best hills in Denver, Boulder and beyond.
Anyone hitting the road for Christmas should take it slow on the roads and follow all chain and traction laws, NWS meteorologists said.
Up-to-date weather conditions and travel delays can be seen online at cotrip.org.
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