It looks like Winter may not yet be done with us. After a gorgeous Mother’s Day change is in the air. Monday night a cold front will move into the state bringing a significant drop in temperatures and precipitation to much of the state.

A Winter Storm Watch has already been issued for the northern and central mountains where 6 – 12 inches of snow is possible by at higher elevations. The foothills could receive 4 – 8 inches in some areas.

Here in the Denver metro area, after reaching a high near 70 Monday, temperatures will drop in the evening and a rain / snow mix will begin to fall overnight. By Tuesday morning, this will change to all snow although with the ground being relatively warm, little will accumulate except on grassy areas where we may see 1 to 2 inches. After noon Tuesday as we warm up this will again change to all rain.

We’ll recover a bit Wednesday and warm up to near 60. Thursday again brings unstable air and a 30% chance of precipitation. The good news is that at this point the weekend is looking to be beautiful.

As our May weather preview pointed out, snow and cold in May is not at all unheard of – nor is just about any other possible weather condition. Average May snowfall is 1.3 inches which we have already exceeded but in terms of overall precipitation, we are more than three inches below normal thus far in 2008 due to an unusually dry April. This is seen in the number of Red Flag and Fire Weather Watches we have already seen issued so the precipitation on tap this week should be welcomed.