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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.
dec2 weather
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Thursday, Dec. 2nd, 2010
Rocky Mountain National Park Weather Forecast
Moderate La Nina conditions persisted across the equatorial Pacific during the month of November.
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Week in Review
In textbook fashion, the atmospheric circulation over the north-central Pacific responded with strong high-pressure ridging, and corresponding low-pressure troughing across the northwestern US including CO.
This northwesterly storm-track pattern brought a healthy diet of wind and cold to RMNP. Over the last 21 days in November, 17 days were colder than average and 16 days had westerly-component winds greater than average.
The recent waves of disturbed weather also brought frequent bouts of new snowfall to the Park, with the western ranges, like the Never Summer, being the biggest recipients owing to their more orographically favorable orientation to northwesterly flow.
Bear Lake currently has about 3.5 inches of liquid equivalence stored in a dense foot of snow (which is about average for this time of year), while the Never Summer has about 11 inches of liquid equivalence in about 40 inches of snow (which is nearly double that of the climatological norm for this time of the year).
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The Weather Forecast- Dec. 2nd - 5th, 2010.
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The Upcoming Week
A recent shift in the storm track will focus most of the disturbed weather activity along the west coast over the upcoming week.
With some of this energy ejecting westward across the northern Rockies, the north-south pressure gradient will tighten and the westerly winds will once again crank up.
Windy conditions are in the forecast through the weekend, but the strongest winds will occur on Friday, Dec 3, which will be difficult to manage above treeline where 50-70 mph gust are expected.
The passing of this system will also produce a period of light snow on Saturday, Dec 4 across the higher terrain, with the western ranges and slopes favoring accumulating snow of a few inches. Moderate to strong westerly winds will accompany the new snow and so the formation of new sensitive slab can be expected.
The next piece of energy to affect RMNP will eject out of CA on Sunday, Dec 5, and bring another round of light snow to the Park on Monday, Dec 6.
Most accumulation (in inches) will occur with northwesterly orographic forcing immediately following the frontal passage. Additional slab development would occur with moderate northwesterly winds above treeline in the forecast.
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(Above) Mike Arnold edging up The Dangler to the right of Hidden Falls, RMNP.
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Detailed 7-Day Forecast
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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
Weather Observations and Forecasts
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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