This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Forecast Discussion:
We enter a long quiet week after the 30-45mph+ wind gusts with Saturday's frontal passage. There was even a brief period of snow showers in the northern Colorado Rockies as the front came down. Figure 1 shows the late-night Saturday surface map and infrared/temperature background. The high pressure center over Idaho and western Wyoming has a large shield of green colored cold air that covers Colorado right up to the front to our south.
In the longer range forecast:
A ridge builds over the western US (Figure 2) and the jet stream retreats to the north. Quiet and seasonal weather will be the norm. The smoke (Figure 3) is also gone to the south and mixed out. This high will fan flames in California again, like the first front that did so much damage, indirectly.
Figure 4 is is the forecast graph of temperatures and precipitation (from many different runs of the model-in the lower frame). The rain chances are lining up better across the runs for Saturday/Sunday next weekend. Temperatures remain above freezing then, so snow does not seem likely. Figure 5 is the upper air pattern for Friday night that shows the approaching West Coast front that might bring rain to the fires out there, and rain to us later in the weekend next week.
