13 Jan SAN JUAN MOUNTAIN WEATHER: STORM COMING?
Friday, January 13, 2012—15:00
A change in the weather looks immanent. Two vigorous storm systems will be approaching Colorado on Sunday with clouds increasing from the SW throughout the day. The persistent high pressure dome begins to break down as the subtropical jet pushes a closed low off the California coast which opens into a short wave trough into western Colorado. The strong storm system that recently pounded Alaska with over 18′ of snow in places will drop down from the BC coast with polar jet support. Where these storms hit is up for debate. One model has the best jet support over the front range and another model has the western slope as the receipent. Guess we’ll see.
Unless this scenario falls apart which is always possible, the San Juan Mountains should see snow beginning late Sunday night as the first disturbance pushes into the western mountains enhanced by a cold front from the NW. 6-8″ of snow is possible by Monday evening but those #’s can & will change depending on storm dynamics and jet location in the storms.
Looks like a short break with clearing on Tuesday then another storm system approaches from the Pacific NW and will favor the northern mountains through Thursday but once zonal flow sets up, the favored west facing slopes of the San Juans could see some accumulations. But that is much too far into the future to even think about.
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