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Mountain West Discussion- cool season '23-24


mayjawintastawm
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6 hours ago, Chinook said:

Here is the precipitation percent of normal and snowfall percent of normal since the beginning of December. From the recent storms, the snowpack snow water equivalent is above normal for the Southwest and below normal for the northern Rockies.

dec 1 to feb 16 precip.png

dec 1 to feb 16 snow.png

Wow, look at the Mid Atlantic/Northeast and Minnesota. Shows just how warm it's been... wet but not snowy at all.

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Anyone know how much snow might be on the ground NW of Fort Collins around Greyrock Summit (Poudre Park)? Looking at hiking that Monday, but want to be sure trail conditions are decent enough and not like 2 feet of snow

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7 hours ago, Newman said:

Anyone know how much snow might be on the ground NW of Fort Collins around Greyrock Summit (Poudre Park)? Looking at hiking that Monday, but want to be sure trail conditions are decent enough and not like 2 feet of snow

That sort of area always has an icy snowpack on the trail, as people walk on it and pack it down. I don't know if that helps. There's also another reason that I didn't go to Greyrock too much in the winter: the small parking lot has a mostly shaded area where you have to drive up a few feet. The slope may be icy. So, yes, you might get some icy stuff in exactly the places where you don't want.

Hewlett Gulch has a road and parking lot that should be in the sun. Also, way less mountainous terrain at the trail. Still, might have some packed ice.

greyrock.jpg

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A large upper level trough will develop next week and one possibility is snow and cold temperatures in northern Colorado. The current models have a quick hit for the snow, but I suppose that could change. I think the trough may move too fast. On the severe weather side of things: The models have the 60 dew points from Texas into the Midwest. The SPC has given out an unusual Day-6 severe weather outlook, as shown. I figure the Illinois folks may eventually talk about this.

 

129 hour forecast.png

day6prob.gif

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5 hours ago, Chinook said:

There are lots of watches warnings, and advisories. It is snowing, windy, or on fire. Maybe half the country is on fire. We are not sure.

 

 

In Colorado it can sometimes be snowing, windy, and on fire all at the same time. Maybe even all in the same place.

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Cherry Creek Lake is now ice-free (after a low of 11 F this AM), pointing out just how little cold we had in February. Not a top 20 warmest for Denver so far (we could just squeak in depending on temps today and tomorrow), but no sustained cold to keep the ice around. A pair of bald eagles was fishing this afternoon.

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On 2/27/2024 at 6:03 PM, katabatic said:

I live in Maryland but coming out to Donner ski area for the storm. Looking forward to being in your area!

I see Donner is shut for the day.  Hope you're having an epic trip.

I would've liked to make it out.   Gonna be one to remember, for sure.  Post pics !

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42 minutes ago, Chinook said:

I think they said 2ft-4ft for the Sierra summits. It has mostly already happened.

Point and click forecast for the middle of Lake Tahoe this afternoon was somewhere between 50 and 90 inches for the entire storm, including 3-4 feet tonight. Wow. That's like 3-4 inches an hour for 12 straight hours. 

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15 hours ago, mayjawintastawm said:

Point and click forecast for the middle of Lake Tahoe this afternoon was somewhere between 50 and 90 inches for the entire storm, including 3-4 feet tonight. Wow. That's like 3-4 inches an hour for 12 straight hours. 

local storm reports have 5" - 42" from Reno up to the Donner Summit.

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Katabatic posted pictures of snow in Sierra Nevada on mid-Atlantic forum (in current discobs). Basically a two-storey building is disappearing under snow! We got 8" up here in the past 24 hours, and it forms our secondary seasonal peak of 12" after a few days near 2 feet in early January. In between we lost almost all by mid-Feb, and only recently began to gain snow pack again. It's around an 18" base in some higher locations outside town. Drove through Cascades recently and same low pack in evidence, 2 feet at a few upslope locations, less than 6" on eastern slopes, and bare ground in Okanagan valley until recent snowfalls.  

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Washington state snow pack should be rather low in all aspects.  As you can see, the southern snowpack values aren't too bad as El Nino normally favors the Southwest. These days we can say that the California jet stream is doing a good job at blasting warmer air in the middle of the country. A lot of the CO mountains should pick up some good snows from the westerly winds.

western snowpack.jpg

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I posted these images in the El Nino discussion. This shows the subtropical jet stream did most of what it was supposed to do. There are also some abnormally westerly winds near the equator, with a component of the wind transporting the moisture to California. (westerly winds at the equator should be happening in the West Pacific.)

 

850mb wind anoms.gif

zonal wind anoms.gif

vector wind anoms2.gif

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13 hours ago, Chinook said:

Snow with a weak disturbance, with winter storm watches/winter weather advisories above 6000 ft

 

Yawn. (except for the far northeast plains) Even the mountains only get an advisory for this one. Wake me when severe season starts. 

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3 hours ago, ValpoVike said:

The Euro and GFS are both showing a good storm for the second half of next week for the foothills with the Euro QPF coming in at 1.5"+ and the GFS is bonkers with widespread 3"+ totals.  It would be right on time for our big March events, so fingers crossed.

I'm sure there will be a lot to talk about in the future. The GFS has a shortwave with some snow at hour-108 and then there's more snow after that. The 500mb low will roll around the Four Corners area, I think. But like I say, that one is more than 100 hours in the future.

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