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Forecast Discussion:
Mild weather has invaded. In the wind chill maps (where actual temperature and wind speeds combine to give you a physiological sensation of colder temperatures) there is an interesting warmer signal down hill from the Rockies with calm air and the compressional heating of the air (darker blues around and east of the Longmont dot - Figure 1 and 2).
The surface front and pressure lines (isobars) are hinting that there is high pressure in the western states (there are a few H's again- Figure 3). Beautiful stuff!
The longer range forecast:
The ridge dominates the west into the weekend. It is holding on strong early Saturday (Figure 4). The meteogram from Weather5280.com (figure 5) shows the trough in Figure 4, off the California coast, moving in later in the weekend creating western CO snows. Some showers may sneak off the mountains to the I-25 corridor... we'll see as we get closer.
Later next week (7-9 days from now) a bigger temperature drop arrives with increased rain/snow chances (Figure 5). The GFS gives Longmont 4-5 inches of snow (total) over the next 10 days. (Alert: do not place monetary wagers on 10 day forecasts!).
