It’s that time of year. You should be a member of CAIC and getting these forecasts.

There have already been two avalanches catching people in North America.

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center is a program within the Department of Natural Resources.

Weather Discussion

Today is our first day of backcountry weather forecasting for the 2012-2013 season. We begin November with warm and dry conditions as Colorado sits under a weak ridge of high pressure. Daytime high temperatures will climb into the low 50s. The ridge will move east this afternoon, and light to moderate winds will shift from westerly to southwesterly by later this afternoon. High-level cloud cover will increase later this afternoon and overnight.

A cold front and low-pressure trough is moving across Pacific Northwest, and will slide by to our north on Friday. Some cooler air will drop down into Colorado. Daytime highs on Friday will be about 10 degrees cooler than today for the Northern Mountains and 5 degrees cooler elsewhere. Winds will veer to the west northwest on the backside of the passing trough. The next chance for snowfall looks likes its over a week away. It’s too early to start talking about snowfall amounts, but it looks like the storm could produce some decent snowfall. We’ll keep tracking it, and the storm will come into better focus as it nears Colorado.