So a cool and windy day today, and strong northwest winds should remain in place into Saturday morning, then die down during the day on Saturday. Temps will also warm up this weekend. Strong west to southwest winds likely to return on Sunday ahead of our next weather system.
Models indicate an upper level trough from the Pacific Northwest will move across CO Sunday night into Monday. Snow will begin in western CO Sunday night, heaviest in the southwest mountains, and then presist through the day west of the Divide on Monday. Winter advisories will be likely for the mountains west of the Divide from Sunday night into Monday evening, as I could see 6-12 inches over the higher terrain, with higher amounts possible on west facing slopes. Central and northern mountains will see the brunt during the day on Monday. For our foothills, cold front will swing through during the day on Monday, so much cooler temps Monday. We will see a chance for some light snow Monday afternoon and evening, although amounts look to remain on the light side, with maybe 1-3 inches possible. Plains will see only flurries or very light snow with little if any accumulation.
Next week will begin a big shift in the global weather pattern. The dominant upper level ridge in the eastern Pacific and west coast will be replaced by a strong zonal flow across the Pacific and into the western US. This will begin to bring Pacific moisture across the entire west coast and into CO by about Thursday next week. After that, CO will see a series of Pacific storms move rapdily across the state. The primary impact will be heavy mountain snows west of the Divide, with windy conditions along the foothills. We will see occassional snow in the foothills when stronger systems move through and dump snow east of the Divide, but not the major upslope events, at least initially. This will provide many feet of snow for the mountains west of the Divide over the next 7-14 days, which will be very welcome by ski resorts. The snows will impact the west coast including the Sierras which have been extremely dry this year, as well as the Cascades and Wasatch Range. This pattern will likely be in place through the end of January, and possibly longer.
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"Climatology is what you expect, Weather is what you get".
"It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong".
Too bad future generations aren't here to see all the great things we are spending their $$ on!!
