Ruby Mountain Spillover

The Ruby Mountains are a spectacular mountain range located near Elko, Nevada.  They are very similar in appearance to the Wasatch Mountains.  In fact, upper Lamoille Canyon is about as close as you can come to a carbon copy of Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Looking down Lamoille Canyon
from the Ruby Mountain Crest

With peaks over 11,000 feet high, the Ruby Mountains are a formidable barrier to weather systems over northern Nevada.  The Elko radar today showed a remarkable transition in precipitation spillover across the Ruby Mountain crest (red line below) with the passage of the cold front.  Check out how in the prefrontal environment there was a decent extension of higher radar reflectivities into the lee of the Ruby Mountains, but in the post-frontal environment, there is a sharp gradient very near the crest.

Watching this loop makes me think that a ski trip to Lamoille Canyon is needed...soon.