It has been a chilly week across Colorado, as an upper level low pressure system has slowly worked its way over the area. Most of the precipitation this week has remained west of the Continental Divide, but shallow upslope flow led to significant cloud cover and below average temperatures for the first half of the week.
The upper trough has now moved east of Denver, and the sun returned, but gusty northwest winds have resulted in another chilly day. While we have remained dry, the mountains along and north of I-70 have been getting snow today under northwest flow, which typically produces good orographic (i.e. terrain-enhanced) snowfall for ski areas such as Vail, Winter Park, and Steamboat. While it is still early, the snowpack is off to a strong start in the mountains, which is great news for ski areas which will be opening over the next few weeks.
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| 700 mb Winds and Relative Humidity Map showing good snowfall-producing moisture across the Northern Colorado mountains. 700 mb is roughly equivalent to 10,000 ft. of altitude. Source: College of DuPage |
Meanwhile, the aforementioned low pressure system is working its way across the Central U.S. and is producing some severe weather this evening, with tornado watches in effect for parts of Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. Fall is actually considered a "secondary" severe weather season, so it's not unusual for the central and southern U.S. to experience severe thunderstorms and tornadoes as these mid-latitude cyclones move across the country and tap into low level Gulf moisture. Just two years ago, Oklahoma experienced an EF-4 tornado on November 7.
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| Source: Storm Prediction Center |
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