This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Forecast Discussion:
As my update pointed out this morning, we did not get any precipitation from this latest storm, though the mountains and even Boulder received some snow. Figure 1 is the
next 10 day graphical forecast for our fair city. The Saturday storm looms large, but with only 1-3" predicted, most storms this size have faded out before we get to that time. There is another storm Monday/Tuesday after that that is a bit less impressive in the models.
The longer range forecast:
Figure 2 is the first of the upper air maps where we are tracking the troughs (red lines) that help kick up storms around here. Later today, we can see the trough for yesterday's storm moving off to the east. Figure 3 is the same map for Saturday PM, that is a fairly deep trough passing overhead. Figure 4 is the approaching storm next Monday - this is another good looking trough.
All of these are storm systems are on the move. They are not digging a big cut-off low that may sit in the southern parts of the state and pump moisture into the cold air dammed up against the mountains. This is just not the right pattern for the big Plains storms we like now and then. The mountains keep getting brush after brush of snow - which is great for them.
