textproduct: Pueblo

KEY MESSAGES

- warming trend continues into mid week.

- Critical Fire Weather Conditions expected Tuesday greater I-25 corridor region.

- Windy Wednesday most areas, wind driven snow central mtns (some showers Palmer Divide region Wed night)

- Critical Fire Weather conditons possible THU and FRI I-25 corridor region.

- Still quite a bit of uncertainty in temps/wx for the weekend

UPDATE

Issued at 244 AM MST Mon Feb 23 2026

Given HREF probabilities of wind gusts meeting or exceeding 25 mph in the 60-80+ percent range across eastern Las Animas county on Tuesday for greater than 3 hours, have opted to include them in the Fire Weather Watch. With H7 winds in the 20-25 kt range and lee troughing kicking eastward, the signal is strong enough and confidence high enough to expand the Watch. -KT

SHORT TERM /THROUGH TUESDAY/

Issued at 1216 AM MST Mon Feb 23 2026

Currently...

Bands of cirrus were moving across the region from WNW-ESE. Temps across the region ranged from the 20s and 30s across the plains to 20s in the mtns and valleys.

Remainder of tonight...

Cirrus will continue to trek across the region. Low temps by morning are expected to be in the mid to upper 20s across the banana belt region (along the mtns/plains interface), to L20 and 10s over the plains. San Luis Valley will fall into the single digits with teens in the mtns.

Today...

Temps will warm up quite a bit, and expect to see readings in the mid 60s across most of the plains by mid to late afternoon. Cirrus will still be with us. Surface winds will be light across the region and will be predominantly diurnally driven.

Tonight...

It will be noticeably warmer as we should start to pick up a light westerly surface flow as lee troughing starts to develop over the region. It will be dry, and expect min temps to only fall into the 30s to L40s across a good part of the plains. The coolest areas, with readings in the 20s, will be over the northeastern sections of the southeast plains. SLV will still be cool, but only expect readings to drop into the 10s. Mtns will be in the 10s and 20s. Winds will start to pick up over the higher elevations of the mtns.

LONG TERM /TUESDAY NIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY/

Issued at 1216 AM MST Mon Feb 23 2026

Tuesday...

Critical fire weather conditions are expected to develop over most of the greater I-25 corridor region, and the Fire Weather Watch has been expanded to include S El Paso, Crowley and Otero counties. West to northwest winds will be picking up aloft as the jet slowly drops south in advance of a short wave dropping into the Pacific NW. Dwpts will also be decreasing and critical conditions for fire weather will develop during the day Tuesday.

Wednesday...

The short wave over the Pacific NW will drop over the region on this day. It will become breezy to windy across all of the region, and snow will develop over the central mtns. 3 to 6 inches of wind driven snow will be possible. Although it will become windy, guidance was to increase the RH values throughout and critical RH values are not expected to develop at this time. Some of the guidance shows that we may see some light showers develop over the Pikes Peak region and move out onto the Palmer Divide during the evening hours.

Max temps on the plains will be similar to the max temps which occurred on Tuesday.

Thursday and Friday...

Temps on Thursday will be a bit cooler than what is expected on Friday, but it still will be warm. The main concern on these two days is that critical fire weather conditions will be possible mainly along the I-25 corridor as winds will be strong enough and RH values will fall to critical values.

Weekend

NDFD grids have temps forecasted to be in the 60s these days over the plains, however DESI statistical guidance still shows a large temperature range over the plains over the weekend, so there is still quite a bit of uncertainty on what weather we will experience this upcoming weekend. As discussed this time yesterday, this is due to differences between the Euro and GFS guidance. as the Euro has a Canadian air mass affecting the plains (and possible low clouds and light precip) while the GFS has dry westerly flow over the region. \/Hodanish

AVIATION /12Z TAFS THROUGH 12Z TUESDAY/

Issued at 433 AM MST Mon Feb 23 2026

Variable high cloudiness will overspread the region through the 24 hour valid TAF period. Conditions will remain VFR with diurnally driven winds under 15 kts. -KT

PUB WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

Fire Weather Watch from Tuesday morning through Tuesday afternoon for COZ227>233.