Marine Weather and Tide Forecast for Raymer (New Raymer), CO

UPDATE
Issued at 248 AM MDT Fri Apr 17 2026

Forecast is generally on track with only minor adjustments needed.
May see some travel impacts over the higher portions of the Palmer Divide, for a few hours this aftn, along I-25.

DISCUSSION /Through Thursday/
Issued at 1104 PM MDT Thu Apr 16 2026

The cold front is approaching the WY/CO border as of late this evening. Winds behind the front are generally gusting around 30 to 45 mph, but we have seen a few gusts around 55mph as the front moved through. Temperatures are also dropping quickly behind it, with stations in WY recording around a 30 degree decrease in about 2 hours after frontal passage. The front is forecast to move through Colorado overnight, impacting Denver between 1AM and 2AM, and moving out of our southern counties by the early morning. The gusty winds and colder temperatures behind the front will lead to wind chills staying near or below freezing for much of the day tomorrow, with values in the teens to low 20s in the morning.

Snow showers will start in the mountains in the early morning, continuing into the early to mid afternoon. Snow accumulations around 2 to 9 inches are forecast for areas in the higher elevations (>9000ft). For the Foothills and Palmer Divide, snow amounts look a bit closer to the 2 to 6 inch range, with the highest amounts in the Foothills in Jefferson County. This area does include I-70, which could see a period of hazardous driving conditions late Friday morning through early Friday afternoon. In the plains, were looking at the lowest amounts, with a trace to up to 3 inches (but most of the area will be on the lower end). Now the big question is what impacts this snow will cause, which is a bit tricky. Road temperatures and therefore road conditions are a bit of a question mark. The cold front will help cool them down pretty significantly, but with how warm we've been recently, will it be enough for snow to accumulate and cause hazardous driving conditions? Right now, we're thinking a good amount of the snow will melt limiting road impacts. However, in the areas that see the larger snow amounts and heavier snow rates under snow bands, we could see some road accumulations and hazardous travel. There is potential for some snow banding with this activity. Areas under the stronger bands could see higher amounts than previously mentioned and increased travel impacts. Due to the potential for travel impacts, particularly along I-70 and in mountain passes, we've issued a Winter Weather Advisory for the higher elevations and southern Foothills.

Models have skies clearing and winds weakening overnight Friday into Saturday. This will allow temperatures to drop significantly, putting lows Saturday morning in the upper teens to lower 20s across the plains, with temps in the single digits for portions of the mountains. And with how warm we've been the past few weeks, this hard freeze could have larger impacts than what we would typically see in April. These temperatures could damage sensitive plants, damage trees which have already started to bud, and could damage above ground irrigation lines if they are not drained.
Additionally, any slush or water left on the roads in the late evening could freeze overnight, potentially creating some slick spots in the morning.

As the upper level trough moves off to the east, upper level ridging will begin to build over the area. This will lead to a warming trend with mostly dry conditions through Tuesday. The only exception to this will be in the mountains where weak disturbances and upslope winds could be enough or some precip, leading to low end rain/snow chances for both Monday and Tuesday in the higher elevations. Highs by Tuesday afternoon are forecast to reach into the upper 70s to mid 80s across the plains.

Things start to look a bit more interesting for the second half of the week. Models still are not sure what they want to do with the strong upper low which is forecast to sit over the West Coast for the first half of the week. Models have the low splitting into two separate lows/troughs, which vary in both location and speed between models and model runs. We'll likely have to wait and see what this system actually ends up doing, as models struggle with this sort of set up. Because of this uncertainty, we have low end PoPs for much of the period Wednesday through Friday. We are not expecting precipitation during this whole period, rather we're expecting one or maybe 2 shots at precip Wednesday through the weekend. But the timing is too uncertain to try and nail it down this far out. Similarly, depending on the track of these systems, we could see a front or two Wednesday into the weekend.

AVIATION /12Z TAFS through 12Z Saturday/
Issued at 519 AM MDT Fri Apr 17 2026

Winds have gone light east to southeast, however, another surge will move in around 14z with NE winds increasing. Not sure when stratus may develop so have just included a tempo group for 2500 ft ceilings thru 14z. After 14z should see stratus develop at all three airports. Best chc of snow looks to be between 16z and 21z with visbility down to 1 mile during its peak, although may see brief periods down to 3/4 mile in heavier bands. Ceilings during the heavier bands will drop to 1000 ft. Winds by 19z will become more northerly. Expect snow to gradually diminish between 21z and 23z. By 00Z winds will decrease with ceilings rising to 6000 ft and then scattering out by 02z. Winds by 02z will become light and variable and then switch to light drainage by 04z.

BOU WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES
Winter Weather Advisory until 3 PM MDT this afternoon for COZ031- 033.

Winter Weather Advisory from 9 AM this morning to 5 PM MDT this afternoon for COZ034-036.

Freeze Warning from 8 PM this evening to 8 AM MDT Saturday for COZ038>051.