Colorado Springs weather: Highs into the low 60s Friday before big changes Thanksgiving week

Another nice day ahead in southern Colorado with highs into the low 60s in the Pikes Peak region, about 10 degrees above average for this time of year," Meteorologist Casey Dorn with Gazette news partner KOAA said. "It's a great travel day, and a good outdoor day." West of Colorado Springs Monarch Mountain and Powderhorn are celebrating opening day today.

Closer to home, winds will be light and blowing from the north this morning, southwesterly this afternoon and it is forecast to be sunny with a high near 62. "Our fair-weather maker high pressure moves southeast on Saturday," Dorn said. "As it does so, our jet stream will increase in strength and move over Colorado.



" This will lead to significant downslope wind gusts and nice compressional warming Saturday. "I'm expecting wind gusts of 20-30 mph on Saturday in the Pikes Peak region, leading to highs in the mid 60s with partly cloudy to mainly sunny skies," he said. "It'll be the warmest day of the week.

" Sunday, wind gusts crank even higher in the 25-35 mph range. Temperatures will notch down slightly as a large area of unsettled weather approaches from the west, but the down sloping winds will temper that decrease so I still expect highs Sunday to be in the upper 50s to low 60s. The action picks up next week.

"An atmospheric river hitting the west coast — a large area of potent moisture — will fuel an area of low pressure tracking toward Colorado. "This means snow — and a good amount of it — on the western slope, and most mountain zones of Colorado starting Sunday night into Monday," Dorn said. "A cold front late Sunday will lead to a cooldown locally Monday with highs back into the 40s.

" The moisture in the west continues to ramp up on Tuesday and I expect heavy snow in the mountains leading to significant travel issues if you're heading west Tuesday or Wednesday. It'll take until Wednesday though for a cold front and a change in wind direction to bring moisture to the Front Range corridor, with expected accumulating snow in the Pikes Peak region Wednesday. "Impacts look moderate to me based on the latest data," Dorn said.

"Plan on some extra travel time Wednesday around here with much worse conditions in the mountains." We'll start talking totals and numbers as we get a bit closer. "Your thanksgiving will be relatively cold - highs drop to the 30s Wednesday through Friday next week.

" Here is the four-day forecast from the National Weather Service ..