textproduct: Pueblo

KEY MESSAGES

- Wrap around showers across the central mountains and northern Pikes Peak region early today, otherwise drier with blustery north winds across the plains.

- Hard Freeze possible across northern portions of the southeast plains tonight, with frost possible for the remainder of the plains. - Even colder temperatures expected for Friday night into Saturday morning with a hard freeze possible across all of the southeast plains. Freeze Watch posted.

SHORT TERM /THROUGH TONIGHT/

Issued at 105 AM MDT Thu Oct 15 2026

Upper low over central Colorado will continue lifting to the northeast with snow showers continuing across the mountains along the Continental Divide through the morning. Additional accumulations will be light with the best combination of orographics and forcing across the central mountains. As the upper low shifts eastward, this will put a window for wrap around moisture to spread into northern Teller and El Paso counties later this morning producing a brief period of rain and snow showers. Given the warmth of the ground, any snow will quickly melt as it hits the ground, so any minor accumulation should stay confined to the higher elevations of the Ramparts and Pikes Peak. Across the southeast plains, stratus will gradually break and clear once gusty north winds spread southward across the plains this morning. Could see gusts close to 50 mph across much of the plains given the strong surface pressure gradient behind the secondary cold front. Better mixing will help boost temperatures a few degrees over yesterday, but they will still be below normal with temperatures topping out in the 50s across most of the southeast plains.

Rapid clearing and decreasing winds along with a dry cold airmass moving in tonight will allow for a widespread frost or freeze across most of the southeast plains. Have upgraded the Freeze Watch to a Freeze Warning for the northern counties, and have issued a Frost Advisory for the remainder of the southeast plains. Probabilities for a hard freeze tonight is highest across northern El Paso County where odds are over 80% of seeing temperatures below 32 and up to 60 percent for temperatures below 28 degrees. So this could be the first season ending hard freeze for this area. Kiowa county could see 2 to 3 hours of temperatures in the low 30s, so it may not be a season ender, but it could be close. For locations along and south of highway 50 across the plains, lows may just briefly touch or come close to freezing, so have opted for Frost Advisories for now.

The San Luis Valley will also get quite cold tonight with low temperatures dipping into the lower 20s. Confidence is high that this mornings low temperatures may be cold enough to end the growing season, so no additional Freeze Warnings have been posted. However, if low temperatures stay too warm this morning, then it's possible one last Freeze Warning for tonight will be needed.

LONG TERM /FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY/

Issued at 105 AM MDT Thu Oct 15 2026

Cool, light northerly flow will remain over the area for Friday and Friday night with clear skies, and even drier air spread in from the north. There is even higher confidence in a widespread hard freeze across the plains with a 40-50% chance of seeing temperatures dip below 28 degrees. Have issued a new Freeze Watch for all of the southeast plains Friday Night into early Saturday morning. It is possible that lee troughing along the mountains Friday night could shift winds from the west of I-25...keeping temperatures from dipping below freezing. Areas where this could occur would be eastern Fremont county and western Huerfano county...however it will be very close and have opted to include them in the Freeze Watch but its possible these areas could end up with a frost or light freeze instead.

Temperatures will rebound over the weekend with temperatures climbing back to near to a little above normal by Sunday. Closed low spinning off the southwest coast of CA will fill and kick out across the Desert Southwest and across CO late weekend into early next week. This could produce a some isolated showers over the mountains, but any precipitation will be spotty and light with near normal temperatures continuing across the plains.

Warmer temperatures will return for the middle of next week as southwesterly flow increases ahead of the next west coast system which could bring impacts to the central Rockies late week. -KT

AVIATION /12Z TAFS THROUGH 12Z FRIDAY/

Issued at 546 AM MDT Thu Oct 15 2026

There will be some lingering low level clouds over KCOS and KPUB during the morning, but nothing that should cause any lower flight categories, therefore VFR conditions are expected throughout the forecast period. Very strong northerly winds will develop over the KCOS and KPUB during the late morning and will last through around sunset. Winds will remain from the north during the evening and overnight, but at a must slower pace.

Winds will not be as strong over KALS as compared to the eastern sites, but gusts up to 25kts are expected during the late morning and lasting throughout around sunset. VFR conditions are expected throughout the forecast period.

PUB WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

Freeze Warning until 8 AM MDT this morning for COZ069>071. Frost Advisory from 2 AM to 9 AM MDT Friday for COZ083-086>089- 093-094-097>099. Freeze Watch from late Friday night through Saturday morning for COZ083>089-093>099. Freeze Warning from midnight tonight to 9 AM MDT Friday for COZ084-085-095-096.