The January doldrums are officially upon us here in the Colorado Front Range. At least on the east side of the Continental in Nederland and the surrounding Foothills communities, there will not be much in the way of weather to speak of. Of course, there is always weather of some sort even on a sunny breezy day, but I am talking more about snow. It looks like it will be dry here in Ned for much of this week, and maybe even next. This animation is from the GFS model of the 500 mb heights over the next few weeks:
The thing to notice is that the flow remains largely unamplified through much of this week, and this generally means average temperatures (not too hot and not too cold). It also means that there will not be much precipitation, particularly east of the Divide where the westerly winds will downslope and dry us out. There is an upper level disturbance passing through on Friday, and this will usher in a quick shot of colder air and perhaps a few snow showers in Ned, but overall, the weather this week into next will be quiet. The 8 to 14 day forecast from the Climate Prediction Center shows this not too hot and not too cold pattern prevailing into the near future.
This is boring weather, but it is not expected for this time of year, February, March, April, and May can be our snowy months. We’ll see what happens this year.