Not much new snow, colder temps subside into next week
After a very active weather week bringing snow and cold temperatures to the front range, we now have not much to talk about in terms of snow over the next week! Cold temps persist through the weekend as generally high pressure moves in and next week will be very clear and temps closer to freezing than 0 like they have been. A small shot of snow Saturday night, will it be a dusting? A trace? Either way, model results are as follows for snow around midnight:
1/2″ – Canadian Model
Trace – American, UK Met, European Models
On Wednesday is another chance for a bit of snow, with 2″ – American Model, 1″ – UK Met, and a trace from the Canadian and European Models.
Retrospective Discussion
Well, all the models seemed to be over optimistic for the patrol zone. Eldora reported only 3″ out of the snow on Tuesday night, with local SnoTels confirming that and reporting SWE ratios of about 15:1. With models ranging from 5-7″ estimated and a most expected range of 6-8″ of snow, the upslope didn’t quite get up high enough into the mountains and have strong impacts like it did down in town. I also note that the Tuesday forecast was done with the Monday model runs, on Tuesday the overnight model runs bumped up the predictions of snow everywhere, thus the 24 hour forecast for town was fairly accurate but even worse in terms of over predicting for the foothills and patrol zone. It seems mid to high level winds shifted around the Continental Divide above our patrol zone and pushed east, thus combating the upslope and holding the upslope down in town.
Great reporting for you while Jordan was out sliding on snow elsewhere!
– Ben (Friday 2/4 morning)
