Snow in the forecast for Colorado Springs 48 hours after hottest day of the year
The heat record fell on Sunday with a temperature of 97 degrees for Colorado Springs. Giselle Jordan and her daughter, Annabella Jordan, cool off at the spray ground at Deerfield Hills Community Center on Sunday, Sept. 6, 2020. All city pools and spray grounds were set to have their last day on Labor Day. The heat wave will continue on Monday, but predictions are that Summer will come to an abrupt halt on Tuesday with a forecast of snow. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)
JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE
Even for Colorado’s famously unpredictable weather, the contrast is hard to believe.
From the hottest day of the year on Sunday, when the 97-degree high set a record for the day in Colorado Springs, to highs in the 30s with snow in the forecast on Tuesday.
The late summer heat wave over the three-day Labor Day holiday weekend, accompanied by gusty winds, prompted a hazardous weather outlook warning of “critical fire conditions” in El Paso County and across much of southern Colorado, the National Weather Service said.
It also gave new life to several forest fires burning in the state, causing the Cameron Peak fire northwest of Fort Collins to blow up, growing by about 10,000 acres and forcing evacuations and closing Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Monday will be more of the same — hot, dry, with temperatures breaking 90 — before a cold front rushes in Monday night and temperatures plunge by nearly 60 degrees, with a foot or more of snow in the high country. Even the Front Range is expected to see some accumulation — Monument and Teller County could get as much as 3-5 inches of snow.
Mountain forecasting service Open-Snow is calling for somewhere between 6 and 13 inches of snow in the area of Rocky Mountain National Park between Monday night and Tuesday. Wolf Creek Ski Area is close behind, expected to get 6 to 11 inches during the same time frame. The Echo Mountain area near Idaho Springs could see 5 to 12 inches.
“There’s still a lot of uncertainty, but one thing that we’re pretty confident about is a cold front is going to come through the area sometime late Monday night or early Tuesday morning,” said Brad Carlberg, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Pueblo.
Temperatures in Colorado Springs are expected to plummet to a high of 36 degrees on Tuesday. Although several inches of snow could fall, accumulation in Colorado Springs will be slight because much of the snowfall is likely to melt on contact, Carlberg said.
Such a dramatic swing in temperatures is rare, but not unheard of.
Last year on Oct. 9, a high of 90 degrees was followed a day later by a low of 14 degrees, a 66-degree temperature swing. Carlberg said the shifts are more common in fall and spring, as part of the normal change in seasons.
Sunday afternoon’s heat in Colorado Springs broke the previous record for Sept. 6 of 93, last seen in 1959.
“Stay tuned … the day isn’t over yet!” the National Weather Service said on Twitter in announcing the new record, set at 2:30 p.m.
Pueblo and Alamosa likewise set new heat records Sunday. Pueblo hit 103 degrees, breaking the previous record of 100 set in 1933, and Alamosa reached 88, beating the previous high of 87 set in 1933.
The high in Woodland Park reached 94 degrees by Sunday afternoon, and the forecast called for a 100% chance for heavy snow on Tuesday.
Spencer McKee contributed to this report.