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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.
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Thursday, May 26th, 2011
Rocky Mountain National Park Weather Forecast
An unsettled weather pattern brought wintry weather conditions back to the mountains of RMNP over the past week.
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Week in Review
A seemingly endless stream of wave energy tracked across northern CO, as an unseasonably active Pacific storm track continued its hyper-active behavior from this past winter season.
Generous amounts of new precipitation from 2 to 3 inches of liquid equivalent fell across the Park. Under-forecasted higher elevation winds worked 1-2 feet of new snow into drifts and reactive slabs on 5/20-22.
Another strong system on 5/24 spared the Park of an additional 2-3 inches of liquid, as it quickly spun up on the plains and kept the bulk of the heavy precipitation east of the foothills.
As evidenced over recent weeks, it’s been a tricky period for forecasting the weather multiple days in advance. This is typically the case during the spring season, when the northern-hemisphere storm-track flow weakens and highly variable (and difficult to predict) convective responses play a more dominant role in influencing weather patterns.
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A graphed summary of the last week's weather weather patterns across RMNP.
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The weather forecast modeling performance for May 18-26th , 2011 over the skies of RMNP, Colorado.
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The Upcoming Week
Another round of unsettled weather is in the forecast for the holiday weekend, with a period of new precipitation expected from mid-day Saturday (5/28) through Monday morning (5/30).
Strong post-frontal westerly flow with mountain-wave enhancement is currently forecast during the day on Monday (5/30), as the circulation ejects northeast of CO. This will once again generate sensitive new wind slab across the higher elevations, where up to another inch of new liquid equivalent is forecast to fall.
Both prior to and following the holiday-weekend storm, more seasonable spring-like weather is expected, particularly on Tue/Wed (5/31 and 6/1) when the warmest temperatures of the week are forecast to occur.
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Collin Holt and Krystal Barton practicing their top-managed systems on an AMGA Single Pitch Instructor Course in Boulder Canyon, Colorado 5/23-25. Sunny skies and warmer temp's make the granite of BoCan an ideal climbing destination this time of year.
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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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