Date: 12/26/2017

Yesterday Santa brought a sleigh full of snow. Christmas storm total reports include 15″ in upper Washington Gulch, 12″ in Pittsburg, 10″ at the CBMR and Gothic.
The snow is over for now, and we’ll see the return of some blue sky under a breezy westerly flow. This pattern will keep a few clouds building over the mountains this morning, as we clear out by this afternoon. The next few days will be more of the same as a broad ridge of high pressure over the west coast keeps us under a brisk west to northwest flow.…

Date: 12/25/2017

Snowfall picked up early this morning and looks to start tapering off a few hours after sunset. By this afternoon there may be a few lingering snow showers along the crest of the Ruby and Elk Mountain ranges otherwise near Crested Butte will be hanging out under mostly cloudy sky. Westerly winds will still be in the 20 mph range at 11,000 feet and high temperatures in the 20s. As we progress through the midweek Colorado will be hanging out under northwest flow and a little to far south of any weather. There doesn’t look to be anything of note for our area through the midweek.…

Date: 12/24/2017

Well, it sure is nice to be back in the flow after a very dry November and December. Today we’ll see a break in the weather before the next fast and turbulent storm rolls in tonight. While today is a break in the weather its still going to be blustery up there, with west winds in the 20+mph range at 11,000ft. Cloud cover will begin increasing tonight and snow showers will intensify around midnight. This incoming storm will be similar to Saturdays, but with a little less wind. I hope Santa has himself a nice full face helmet and face shield for his adventures tonight because it’s going to be a blustery ride. Westerly winds should ease slightly for Christmas day and snow showers will taper as the day progresses. Northwest flow will take us through next week with some moisture and clouds around, but nothing too notable until maybe later in the week around Thursday.…

Date: 12/23/2017

The upper jet nosing into Colorado will carry yet another storm this morning, with good precipitation spurred by the upper level jet support slamming into the Rockies and adding good orographic lift. Unlike our last storm, todays weather will be accompanied by warmer temperatures, and much more wind, especially near and above treeline. Wind will begin to really howl starting early afternoon and build through this afternoon. Snowfall accumulations look to be in the 3-6” range on most models today, with more on the way tomorrow night. Tomorrow’s storm will add another boost of snowfall to bring snow totals potentially into the double digits. We will keep focused on today’s storm and wait for this afternoon’s model run to get excited.…

Date: 12/22/2017

Just as I was beginning to think we had all been naughty, and this storm was our equivalent to coal in the ol’ stocking…the stalled cold front limped its way over the West Elks and gave us the much anticipated snowfall. Look for a few clouds to hang over the high peaks this morning, before that cold, dry arctic air briefly takes hold before high and mid level clouds stream into the central mountains ahead of another storm set to reach Colorado late tonight, and last through tomorrow. Winds should remain light this morning, then steadily increase throughout the afternoon. Temperatures will struggle to break the mid teens, especially at higher elevations. There remains some uncertainty with the trajectory of this storm arriving tonight, forecasted to impact the northern mountains a bit more, but a shift of the jet south will tilt more favored snow totals our direction. Yet another storm is lining up for Rudolph’s voyage Christmas Eve. Maybe we have been good after all?…

Date: 12/21/2017

It’s going to snow today! The big question is “how much?” and there’s little agreement amongst Colorado meteorologists. The storm has slowed down a little, and the predicted timing of the cold air and precipitation isn’t consistent amongst our various resources. That said, there is good confidence that we’ll see at least a few inches by day’s end, with an outside possibility of a foot or more in areas favored by a southwest flow, like Irwin and Paradise Divide.
Essentially we’ve got a wave of low pressure with an associated cold front moving in from Utah. The precipitation will be largely focused around the cold front, which is sitting around Grand Junction early this morning. The slow progress may actually help if the front lingers over us for several hours this morning, but we’ll end up with less snow if the front passes quickly. Either way, by this evening the precipitation should end with skies clearing overnight. Tomorrow will be a beautiful snow covered day before another round of snow showers on Saturday.…

Date: 12/20/2017

So we have one final day to enjoy Fall. Tomorrow, on the first official day of winter, winter will arrive! Today, we’ll see increasing clouds and pre-frontal winds ahead of a brief but potent storm.
This system begins as a digging trough, that will morph into a closed low-pressure system as it passes over Colorado. We’re expecting a somewhat abnormal storm profile, where we will see strong southwest winds before the front, then light southwest winds after the front. Interestingly the strongest winds will come in before the snow, so expect a windy night, then snowfall starting up early tomorrow morning.…

Date: 12/19/2017

Today and tomorrow will be your last chances to ice skate at Long Lake or mountain bike the Lupine Trail. With two more mild days on tap, winter is finally approaching just in time for the winter solstice.
Northwest winds today will usher in some high thin clouds signaling the coming change. Tomorrow we’ll see the flow shift to the southwest bringing thickening and lowering clouds with increasing winds in front of a potent cold front on track for Wednesday night into Thursday morning. Our forecast confidence is high that we’ll see plummeting temperatures later in the week. The weather models have bounced around on snow totals. Basically, this storm won’t bring a lot of moisture, but the atmosphere is going to get rowdy for a short while. At this point, I expect we’ll see big differences in snow totals between town and the high peaks. Stay tuned……

Date: 12/18/2017

Gunnison Valley low temperatures are in the single digits while 11,000ft low temperatures are in the high teens. Temperatures will rebound into the 30’s today with clear skies and light winds. So it should be a beautiful day. This nice weather will hold for the start of the week before changes arrive on Wednesday. A low-pressure trough will start diving from the Northwestern United States towards Colorado. We’ll see increasing clouds on Wednesday and snow showers developing early on Thursday. 3” to 6” of snow on Thursday looks like a good bet and a welcome change. Temperatures will plummet for the weekend and we should also see some more snow accumulate.…

Date: 12/17/2017

Colorado is sitting in a big old sandwich. Where the meat and cheese are all dried out and the bread is soggy wet. A weird sandwich I know, but its true. There is a closed low eating tacos down south near the Mexican border and a wave of moisture being pushed over the ridge into Canada. Colorado just doesn’t have much going on for the next several days. Dry weather will take us through Wednesday. On Wednesday we should see clouds increasing and snow falling by Thursday!! That’s right people snow! The high-pressure ridge will have moved out further west and a low-pressure trough will move in.…