Look for several snow chances to set up throughout the next several days, light snow locked within a northwest flow will be possible for Friday, Saturday overnight/Sunday, and possibly a few snow showers Monday as well. This winter has not brought near as many “more typical” snow-makers to our area. Unlike last season, many of our snow making storm systems have moved in over the region from the northwest, then tracked southeast.
This flow can be referred to as a northwest flow which can bring about several difficulties when forecasting. A small change in the forecasted track within this type of flow can also lead to bigger errors when forecasting snow amounts. Several of our snow-making systems this season have had more “clipper-like” characteristics. Typically in a clipper-like scenario, bitterly cold and dry air can dominate a storm system really limiting the amount of moisture within a storm, therefore, reducing the amount of snow a location receives.
We have seen several systems drop southeast with clipper-like features this season, none have really produced tremendous amounts of snow (OK, we did see appx 7″ to 9″ with one system, but that covered an extended period of time and was “weak sauce” compared to numerous events from last year).
Speaking of last year, it’s easy to remember that we had way more snow here, but the whole entire pattern that set up those large snowfall totals for the season was very different. More times than not, it is fairly common for our winter storm systems to develop on the lee side of the Rockies over portions of eastern and southeast Colorado. Once these systems eject eastward, they can tap into more abundant moisture accompanied by milder air tied into the Gulf of Mexico. If the steering winds are favorable, a low pressure system can bring a considerable amount of snow to our area over a shorter duration of time associated with the storm track.
In this more typical scenario, the snow type is also different. Throw out the dry, light and fluffy stuff from northwest flow, a more typical winter storm track for the central plains will have more moisture content to it with bigger flakes! So far this season, we have not seen that “typical” winter storm setup, but this is something that is not that all uncommon in a La Nina period for our area.
