For the past 24 hours, cool air, low clouds and light drizzle have enveloped Metro Denver. These classic upslope conditions have resulted from cold high pressure to our northeast and an upper level low over the Southern Plains.
The latter has been pumping Gulf moisture northward and its counterclockwise winds have been directing this flow northwestward across the Great Plains. In concert, a high pressure dome over southern Canada and the Dakotas has blocked the moisture flow into that region and its outer clockwise winds have been pushing it toward the Front Range. As this atmospheric stream was forced to rise by the terrain of the High Plains and Rocky Mountains, it cooled further and condensed, producing the low clouds and steady drizzle in Denver and light snow in the foothills west of the city.
Consulting the radar, one could see this rather narrow band of moisture, moving northward across Oklahoma City and Wichita and then making a broad curve across central Kansas, southwestern Nebraska and northeastern Colorado before ending in Metro Denver. This morning, as the high pressure dome and upper level low push off to the east, the upslope flow is breaking down and pockets of blue sky are opening above the city. By this afternoon, sunshine and mild air will return to the Front Range urban corridor.
