The northern mountains saw snow showers on Sunday, and some of these showers were rather intense, especially during the midday and afternoon. Mountains near the divide and from I-70 to the north picked up a coating to about 2 inches.

That storm has now exited to the east, and a ridge of high pressure will control our weather pattern this week. You can see the ridge on Monday morning’s infrared satellite image as it forces clouds to the north while it keeps the west-central and southwestern United States dry and clear.

This ridge of high pressure will keep Colorado dry all week. There might be a few clouds over the northern mountains at times, and there could be a snow shower on Monday and again on Friday, but overall we’ll experience dry, sunny, and warm weather.

While we will experience sunny and warm weather this week in Colorado, the big action will be in the northeast. The same storm that brought a few inches of snow to the northern mountains on Sunday afternoon will bring 1-2 feet of snow to the Mid-Atlantic and New England on Tuesday into Wednesday. Here is the snow forecast for the northeast … ski the east!

Every day I look at the 15-day forecasts from the European, Canadian, American GFS, and NCAR MPAS models. The first three of these offer ensembles, which means that the model is run 20-50 times and we can look at each run or an average of all runs.

The average of the ensemble runs of the European, Canadian, and American GFS models all show that the ridge of high pressure will weaken and that storms will return to Colorado late this month. The first of these storms should arrive sometime between March 22-25 and then the final 7 days of March and early April should continue to be active.

NOAA’s official 8-14 day forecast shows this shift toward more precipitation.

It’s still too early to share any details about these future storms as we can only speculate when the systems are 10+ days away. But it does appear that after another 7-10 days of warmth, powder will return.

Until then, enjoy the sun!

JOEL GRATZ

Event on Monday!

Science talk + Whiskey … that sounds fun! Head to the 10th Mountain Whiskey Tasting Room in Vail Village on Monday, March 13th from 7-9pm. Dr. Tyler Jones from the University of Colorado will be speaking about climate science, and of course there will be Whiskey with $1 off drink specials. I will happen to be in Vail with my dad and wife early next week, so I will be there and hope to see you as well!

 

Geography Key

Northern Mountains
Steamboat, Granby, Beaver Creek, Vail, Ski Cooper, Copper, Breckenridge, Keystone, Loveland, Abasin, Winter Park, Berthoud Pass, Eldora, Rocky Mountain National Park, Cameron Pass

Along the Divide
Loveland, Abasin, Winter Park, Berthoud Pass

East of the Divide
Eldora, Echo, Rocky Mountain National Park, Cameron Pass

Central Mountains
Aspen, Sunlight, Monarch, Crested Butte, Irwin, Powderhorn

Southern Mountains
Telluride, Silverton – north side of the southern mountains | Purgatory, Wolf Creek – south side of the southern mountains