Well, I think the dusting of snow we got overnight is about all we will see from this system. Majority of precip will remain south, west and east of the foothills. We may see a few additional flurries this afternoon and evening, but doubt there will be any additional accumulation. Looks like the GFS solution to this system was correct. Mountains will continue to receive snow today, especially south of I-70 and west of the Divide. Large area of precip has developed east of CO into the central Plains and mid Mississippi Valley as sub tropical moisture plume is advected into this area. Once again, eastern CO got skipped. Southeast CO may see some additional snow today through this evening. Temps will remain cold today and on New Years Day.
We should see dry conditions for the first week of 2013 with temps rising towards the end of the week. Dry conditions are expected to persist across CO into next weekend and the following week as an upper ridge builds across the western U.S. replacing the upper torugh we had for much of December. Next chance for precip looks to be Jan 11-12. So January currently looking to be a rather dry month across CO unless we see a pattern change.
So we will end December with 24 inches of snow on Conifer Mountain. This is 32% of normal snowfall (73 inches) for the end of December, so we are not off to a good start for moisture this season. The mountains are fairing better with most areas in the 70-80% of normal snowfall. Unfortunately the climate prediction center outlook foir CO for the Jan-Mar time frame is calling for above average temps and below average precip. As we have seen in previous years, one storm can make a big dent in such deficits, so will keep my hopes alive for some big storms in 2013.
I would like to wish everyone good health, happiness and prosperity as we enter another year. Despite the many differences that exist in the citizens of our country, I still cherish the ability to live in the greatest country on the planet. The freedoms and opportunities we have that many people only dream of make living here precious. We will always have room for improvement, but we have it pretty darn good.
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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!!
