Summit County Citizens Voice

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Morning alpenglow lights the crest of the Gore Range in Summit County, Colorado. Click on the image to see more sunrise photos.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — A typical winter weather pattern is developing over Summit County, as a moist northwest flow rushes down from the Gulf of Alaska and over the state. Short periods of high pressure will bring dry and clear interludes, alternating with embedded disturbances bringing showery periods through the first half of next week. None of the systems looks to produce big dumps, but our snowpack will build, inch by inch.

Storm totals for the last two days include 10 inches at Wolf Creek, 6 inches at Copper Mountain and four inches at Loveland. Friday looks dry and cool, with highs in the mid-20s and a strong inversion that will trap cold air and smoke in the valley floors, possibly all day long. Lows the next few night are forecast to drop into the low single digits. The average high for Nov. 12 is 40 degrees, the average low is 12 degrees. The record high, 62 degrees, was set in 1952 and the record low, minus 18 degrees, was set in 1911.

The next weak shortwave trough will brush the state Friday night and Saturday, with the best chance for showers over the northern mountains, perhaps dropping a few inches along the Divide in Summit County. A similar pattern and similar temperatures will persist through the forecast period into the middle of next week, when the flow becomes more westerly, still with a chance of showers over the northern mountains.

Temperatures Thursday were cool across Colorado, with the highest readings over the southeastern plains only reaching the low 50s  The hot spot across the lower 48 states was Port Isabel, Texas, at a toasty 87 degrees and the coldest reading came from Bodie, California, at 2 degrees.

Filed under: Summit County Colorado, Summit County snow and weather Tagged: | Colorado ski area snow, Colorado weather, Copper Mountain, Gore Range, Gulf of Alaska, Summit County News, Summit County snow, summit county weather, Wolf Creek