For 1/1/09: The northern system we were watching for today will staying further to the north than expected and the result will be just some high altitude cloud cover building over the higher terrain. We will see gusting winds but not enough to scour this stubborn inversion and the lower valleys will stay capped for at least another couple days.

Last night was a perfect example of the inversion with Crested Butte reporting an overnight low of 4 degrees at midnight while Gunnison dropped to -13 degrees this morning. The rebound will be slow but we will see highs in the high 20’s again valley wide. Overnight lows will be moderate for the higher elevations again tonight with the lower valleys once again dropping well below 0. We won’t see enough mixing for any real changes until this weekend and a cold front from the north will bring temperatures down valley wide.

High cloud cover will build through Friday afternoon on the front end of this next round of moisture with snow building through Saturday and really setting up for Sunday. Right now the dynamics of this system are looking good but moisture will be the true dictator of the snow amounts. Stay tuned for updates as the pattern develops. Happy New Year.