For 12/9/09: For Today: A full on powder day and NOW it feels like the holiday season. We are seeing significant differences in conditions throughout the valley this morning with snow holding on the divide and higher peaks at the north end of the valley while Gunnison sees clear skies. This is mostly affecting the temperatures but is also a good illustration of where we stand in this system with a gap developing between pacific waves and remnants offering scattered snow showers. Look for the clearer conditions to the south to fill in with more snow in varied degrees expected throughout the day.

Overnight lows plummeted in the areas with clear skies with Crested Butte reporting a low of -2 degrees while CB South hit -12 and Gunnison reported -15 degrees. Daytime highs will hold in the single digits for all elevations as the cold pool associated with this latest round settles into the area. Tonight will be even colder as skies try to clear valley wide and already cold highs from the day drop even further thanks to snow covered valleys.

These temperatures swings are a good thing for the snow production as we continue to see this dance in the west between cold from the north and these warmer and wetter systems from the south. Snow through today will offer a couple inches of additional accumulation but it is also opening the door for another western switch and more snow for the weekend. Keep thinking snow.

Look for a complete Crested Butte and Gunnison weather report, 24 hour trends and real time weather information now available at WWW.CBTV.TV.