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.
Nov. 26 weather
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Thursday, November
26th,
2009
Rocky
Mountain National Park Weather Forecast
Seasonably
chilled conditions returned to
the mountains of
RMNP over the past week.
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The Week in Review
With
the arrival of a storm system from the
northwest on
Sun/Mon, temperatures dropped 10-15 C and have remained cold since.
Northwesterly
flow near and above mountain
top was also
reestablished over the region, which produced moderate to strong wind
gusts
east of the Divide associated with mountain-wave activity.
Precipitation
was light, with about three
inches of new snow
measured near treeline.
However, with
locally greater snow amounts in the higher alpine zones and winds
frequently
gusting to 50 mph, deeper drifts and new wind slabs are likely lurking
on
east-facing aspects.
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click
chart to enlarge
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A
typical rock anchor at the top of the 2nd/3rd pitch of the classic All
Mixed Up in the Glacier Gorge of RMNP. Although this route
has been seening numerous ascents in the last three weeks, the first
2/3 of the route are in mostly thin conditions and so a decent sized
rack of mostly small to medium cams are helpful for adequately
protecting this multi-pitch route.
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The Upcoming Week
As
a short-wave ridge of high
pressure builds over the
region on Thursday and Friday, the airmass will moderate and provide
the
warmest
conditions of the week.
With the mean
pressure gradient weakening during this time, the sustained wind speeds
should
also trend downward.
However, as is
always the case with northwesterly flow in the lee of the Divide,
locally
induced mountain-wave accelerations are likely.
The
next weather system will move in on late
Sat from the
northwest. A period of intermittent light snow is forecast with its
passage
during the night on Saturday through Sunday morning. With
this storm system forecast to split (with more energy
focused to
our northeast and southwest), winds are not expected to be that strong
both
during and after storm passage.
A
ridge of high pressure is forecast to
build sharply northward
along the west coast on Monday and Tuesday (11/30 –
12/1).
This will force a
weather system to dive
southeastward from British
Columbia,
and will bring storminess to RMNP on late Tuesday and
Wednesday
(12/2).
Strong
northwesterly winds and colder
temperatures are expected with this system. Only
light snow accumulations are currently forecast.
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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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