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The weekend weather forecast for the high country of Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Researched and written by professional meteorologist and avid mountaineer, Dan "the weather man" Gottas.
april7weather
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Thursday, April 7th, 2011
Rocky Mountain National Park Weather Forecast
The battle between winter and spring continued over the past week in the hills of RMNP.
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Week in Review
A raging northwesterly bull on 3/31 brought orographic snows and wind gusts exceeding 70 mph over to higher terrain. This resulted in the formation of sensitive winter-like slabs on lee-ward aspects exposed to the wind.
By 4/1-2, the bull surrendered to a springing bunny, as temperatures near treeline peaked above the freezing mark, sustained wind speeds backed off below 35 mph, and a mostly clear and dry sky prevailed. This weather brought settling and some wet instability to snowy aspects exposed to the sun.
The winter storm system of the week made its presence felt on 4/3-4. The prior week’s forecasts had this system heading south of the Park, but in the end it tracked along the more progressive northern route just as so many storms have over this past winter, thanks to La-Nina.
An active frontal passage with this system brought another 0.8 inch and 0.4 inch of new snow water equivalent (SWE) to the western (Never Summer) and eastern (Bear Lake) parts of the Park. However a stable post frontal environment on late 4/4 – 4/5 ushered in more strong slab-building west-northwesterly wind gusts.
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A graphed summary of the last week's weather weather patterns over RMNP.
Henry Woods finding powder mid-March below the Longs Peak - Pagoda saddle after a descent of the Keplinger Couloir.
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The weather forecast for April 7th- 14th, 2011 over the skies of RMNP, Colorado.
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The Upcoming Week
The next western storm system is making landfall across the Pac Northwest on 4/6. As it does, it will guide another weaker storm system and moisture plume across CO from the southwest. Some new snow (~0.4 inch SWE) is expected across the Park with relatively low southwesterly wind speeds.
The Pacific Northwest system will amplify across the desert southwest on Friday (4/8) before ejecting across CO overnight on Saturday/Sunday. During this time, another burst of new snow is forecast with an active frontal passage. Gusty northwesterly winds are once again forecast to develop in the post-frontal environment on Sunday.
However, if the current forecast timing verifies, a lower-wind period in the early morning, during the passage of the trough axis, may provide a favorable powder-harvesting window before the new slabs form.
The next chance for new snow, and perhaps the coldest temperatures of the upcoming week, is forecast on 4/12-13.
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Rick Gaukel snowboarding the Trough Couloir on the west face of Longs Peak on March 24th, 2011.
Join ClimbingLife Guides for the best backcountry skiing
that RMNP and Alaska have to offer. We still have two openings on this year's Alaska Range Ski Expedition and a few more Friday Ski Outings and Steep Ski Clinics. Contact Eli at
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for more information or to sign-up for these spectacular ski trips.
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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.
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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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