Summit County Citizens Voice

Winter weather advisory, 4 to 7 inches of snow possible Sunday night and Monday.

Cooler temps, gusty winds expected

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — In a pattern reminiscent of last winter’s sustained La Niña, the northern mountains should get clipped by a fast-moving storm that could drop between 4 and 7 inches of snow at elevations above 8,500 feet.

West-facing slopes will be favored by orographic conditions — as the moist flow out of the west is pushed up over the mountains, the moisture will be squeezed out west and along the Continental Divide.

A winter advisory is in effect from 12 p.m. Sunday through 3 p.m. Monday, with snowfall developing rapidly along and behind a southward-moving front, with Park, Gore and Elk Ranges singled out for significant accumulations of about 6 inches by early Monday afternoon.

The advisory covers most of the state’s northern mountains from the Wyoming border down through Vail, Aspen, Summit County and the entire Sawatch Range to south of Buena Vista, as well as the northern Front Range.

Temps will be much closer to normal than during the weekend, which brought record and near-record highs to parts of the state, including an 82-degree reading at DIA Saturday afternoon and temps in the mid-70s across western Colorado Sunday.

Monday through Wednesday, look for highs in the 40s around Summit County and the rest of the high country, with lows in the 20s — much better weather for snowmaking crews at local ski areas. Wednesday could bring another warmup to above-normal readings before another shortwave trough from the Pacific brings a renewed chance of showers Wednesday night.

A classic La Niña storm track, with shortwave disturbances moving across northwestern Colorado from the west.

Filed under: climate and weather, La Niña, Snow and weather, Summit County snow and weather Tagged: | Colorado snow, Colorado weather, Gore Range, La Niña, Sawatch Range, Summit County snow and weather