For 12/16/09: For Today: The pacific wave we were seeing in the west has blown apart leaving a dirty western flow with a west to east zonal pattern drawing the remnants through our area. The result will be areas of scattered cloud cover but there is little by way of any moisture to fuel some snow. The cloud cover will control the big temperature swings but the inversion will continue to hold keeping the lower valleys colder than the higher elevations.

Overnight lows last night were a bit warmer due to this increased cloud cover with Crested Butte reporting -3 degrees while Gunnison was again colder at -10 degrees. Daytime highs will be in the low 20’s for CB while Gunnison will hover on the low teens again even with the sunny skies. Look for lows tonight to be a another couple degrees warmer hovering around 0 at the north end of the valley but staying below for the lower valleys.

This mix of sun and clouds will continue through the week and into the weekend with just a glancing blow from a northern system threatening snow showers Thursday night. Other than that this ridge will hold with at least partly sunny conditions dominating into next week.

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