The weekly
weather forecast for the high country of Rocky Mountain National Park,
Colorado. Researched and written weekly by professional meteorologist
and avid mountaineer, Dan "the weather man" Gottas.
oct.1 weather
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Thursday, October 1st,
2009
Rocky
Mountain National Park Weather Forecast
Fantastic
autumn weather returned to the
mountains of RMNP last week.
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The Week in Review
Beginning
last Friday (9/25), the atmosphere
began to dry and
warm following the previous week’s bout of winter weather.
Temperatures
peaked from Sunday through
Tuesday (9/27 – 9/29), while low levels of
absolute moisture produced deep blue backdrops for photos of
the
local fall foliage.
A
Pacific storm system moved into CO on Wed.
(9/30),
bringing gusty southwesterly winds to the high country ahead of a
strong cold
front.
After
the trough-axis passage on
Wednesday evening, winds turned to the typical northwesterly
post-frontal
direction.
With this, strong wind
speeds
and widespread snows have returned to the high country.
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The north face of the Sharkstooth Spire
on Sept. 30th, 2009.
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Aspen on the south face of
the Bierstadt Moraine in Rocky Mountain National Park on Sept. 30th,
2009.
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The
Upcoming Week
Widespread
orographic snows and strong
post-frontal winds
will continue in the early morning hours on Thursday (10/1) across the
mountains of
RMNP.
These conditions will
likely
produce the first significant snow drifts and slabs of the season in
favored
lee-side terrain locations.
Temperatures
in the alpine have returned to
sub-freezing
winter readings and will remain so through Friday.
The
next Pacific storm system will crank up
in the Pacific
Northwest on Saturday. Warm
southwesterly flow will set up over CO through the
weekend in
advance of this system.
During this
time, temperatures near treeline are forecast to rise above the
freezing mark.
By
late Sunday, a leading disturbance may
bring another round
of precipitation to the northern mountains. However,
at the current time, there is some elevated
uncertainly in the
forecast speed of the parent low, with recent tendencies to slow the
system’s
eastward progress.
The
slow eastward progression of this
disturbance will keep
the threat of precipitation in the forecast through mid-week over the
northern
mountains of CO.
Alpine temperatures
will drop back below freezing around Monday and remain sub-freezing for
most of
the week.
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Click chart or photo to enlarge
A rainbow points the way to the North Inlet drainage on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado on Sept. 30th.
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The
NWS numerical forecast for
the mountains of RMNP over
the upcoming weekend.
Click
chart
to enlarge
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Detailed
7-Day
Forecast
The
link above will take you to the National Weather Service
forecast for the
12,000 foot level near Longs Peak.
These
forecasts are derived from computer-generated numerical forecasts, and
are
updated shortly after 3:30 am, 9:30 am, 3:30 pm, and 9:30 pm local
time.
In the lower right-hand corner of the page, one can view forecasts for
other
locations in the Park by clicking on the desired location in the
terrain map.
Do-It-Yourself
Weather Forecast
Links
The
link above provides a list
of web links to various sites
containing a variety of meteorological data and information.
Collectively,
these resources can be used to monitor and study current weather
conditions, as
well short-term, medium-range, and climate forecasts
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