Fire and Ice

I'm swamped rewriting our paper on how the Sierra Nevada influence cold fronts over the Intermountain West, so today I'm simply going to say that the next few days will feature fire and ice.

The fire is just beginning to smolder today, but will reach full inferno tomorrow as the GFS forecasts 700 mb (crest level) temperatures of +3C in the afternoon.

Yup, bring your wax if you are going skiing.  Without much of a regular frost freeze cycle, the "snow suck" should be nasty.  Further, those 700-mb temperatures are high enough that we should make a run at 70F for a high in Salt Lake City.

But don't put the puffy jacket away tomorrow because Mother Nature is quite fickle in the spring.  The models have not quite agreed yet on the details, but a major airmass change will likely occur on Saturday evening and the GFS forecast 700 mb temperatures plummet to -11C by Sunday afternoon.

Yup, looks like a period of fire and ice.