White Christmas?- im sure asked alot lol (Denver, Colorado Springs: rental, houses)

[coboblack]

Hi I'm new to this forum and I have a probably exhausted question. I live in Houston Texas which as most of you know is pretty much a swamp climate.
I booked a cabing in Cascade Colorado, just outside of colorado springs. Heres the address "4680 Hagerman Avenue, Cascade, CO 80809" and heres the website.

Rocky Mountain Cabin Cottage Vacation Rental Colorado CO

I was under the impression before I bought the non refundable cabin from 12/21 through 12/26. That colorado ALWAYS has a white christmas. ( I know, I know...and New York has alagators in the sewers) It seemed reasonable, coming from a city that has had snow twice in the last 20 years, and watching Christmas movies where every other city snows every single Christmas :P So now, back to the point, the only reason we bought this cabin is so my 2 year old daughter can have a first real Christmas, a snowy WHITE Christmas. Now it looks like it might not happen. I was wondering what the last few christmas's looked like at this location at that altitude. Thanks guys

FYI The altitude is at 7500 Feet.

[COflower]

Unless someone has a crystal ball, it's up in the air as to whether or not there will be snow on the ground. So far, we have been extremely dry and haven't seen but two small snow storms this season. If it does snow a bit before Christmas, given Cascade's location, it should stay on the ground for a while.

People looking for snow in Colorado tend to go up to the resorts like Breckenridge, Steamboat Springs, Winter Park, etc...although, you could make a day trip up to Breckenridge. It's a great little town to wander around and only about a hour and 45 minutes from Cascade.

[coboblack]

Thanks, and yeah, thats what it looks like...gotta leave it up to God and hope he makes our wish come true but thanks about the Breckenridge idea, thats actually where we plan on skiing so at least I got that confirmed. What was the previous week before christmas's like?

[Charles]

Ha, Wouldn't that be funny if it snowed in Houston and it was 72 here?

[coboblack]

lol, thats the exact joke I said wouldn't be funny lol. I would be soooo mad. In fact two christmas's ago it snowed in Houston 1 day...on Christmas. It was awesome..but pretty funny, You would drive by and almost every house had a midget snow man and used all the snow from there entire yard to make it lol. How was yalls previous 3 or 4 week before christma's?

[COflower]

Originally Posted by coboblack

Thanks, and yeah, thats what it looks like...gotta leave it up to God and hope he makes our wish come true but thanks about the Breckenridge idea, thats actually where we plan on skiing so at least I got that confirmed. What was the previous week before christmas's like?

Christmas week around here is always up in the air.

Last year we had the first of three blizzards. In 1992 the day before Christmas (in Colorado Springs) it was 76°. You just never know what the weather is going to be like in this area.

Breckenridge is a good bet though. Not saying it will snow but usually there is snow on the ground. They have awesome skiing though. Hope you have child care taken care of up there for your 2 year old. I am not sure if they allow 2 year olds into ski school though. I would have to talk to my brother (he has a house up there) to see when they started their kids.

For the most snow, Colorado's snowiest time is mid-February through March. That is historically speaking though. Last year we got hit pretty dang hard with three blizzards back-to-back but outside that, it was a pretty mild season.

There's been talk with the local weather people that this year is probably going to be a dry one.

Don't get your hopes up to have it snow on Christmas Day though. You just never know.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by coboblack

lol, thats the exact joke I said wouldn't be funny lol. I would be soooo mad. In fact two christmas's ago it snowed in Houston 1 day...on Christmas. It was awesome..but pretty funny, You would drive by and almost every house had a midget snow man and used all the snow from there entire yard to make it lol. How was yalls previous 3 or 4 week before christma's?

Here's how it looked in January 2007 on the Palmer Divide between Denver and COS but it also looked that way 12/21 a few weeks earlier. Last year was insane. This year it has been like the Bahamas.

[coboblack]

WoW Charles...Me and my wife are jealous! How about we just switch houses, You can come stay in in Texas and we'll move to colorado :P

[Kar54]

Christmas Facts for Colorado Springs - NWS Pueblo, CO

[jazzlover]

I posted this on another thread. I'll repeat here. Bottom line: chances of snow on the ground--so, so. Chances of it snowing on Christmas Day--not great.

Originally Posted by jazzlover

B. adams is right. Outside of the mountain areas, the chances of a white Christmas are about 20% in most places. This is due to the weather patterns that normally (and I emphasive "normally") occur during Colorado's winter months. Many of the early (November and December) storm fronts that affect Colorado come out of the Pacific Northwest. The air coming from that way is generally cooler and less able to carry copious moisture, as well as having a longer "fetch" from the Pacific--so these storms tend to be drier. They most heavily affect northwestern Colorado and usually bring little snow to the Front Range. Thus, areas like Steamboat are the most likely to benefit from them.

As winter progresses, more storms develop off of the southern Pacific coast and move inland towards Colorado. These storms bring the big moisture to southwest Colorado. If they move along the Colorado/New Mexico border (they are often referred to as a "Trinidad low" because they often pass right over that city), the can set up a very wet upslope flow for the Front Range--especially from Colorado Springs south. If the moisture collides with cold air from the north, especially if the storm is big enough to fetch moisture from the Gulf of Mexico (and some are) blizzard conditions and very heavy snow can develop along the Front Range and into eastern Colorado. If the low tracks a little farther north the storm can get north of the Palmer Divide and slam Denver and points north pretty hard. These southern Pacific originated storms are not very common until after Christmas, though, and become most frequent into February, March, and April. They are also the storms that usually make or break Colorado's winter snowpack. If they are sparse, a serious water shortage usually follows in the summer.

Until the advent of artificial snowmaking, ski areas quite often were high and dry at Thanksgiving, with little snow for Christmas, either. In the very dry winter of 1976-77, before widespread snowmaking, a number of ski areas had barely any skiable terrain at Christmas--and a couple went bankrupt that season. I was up around Crested Butte a few times that winter. They were filming what turned out to be an abysmal "B" movie about the abominable snowman. There was so little snow, that they had to haul snow into some locations in dump trucks, just to make the scene look plausible. It didn't help the movie--it still sucked.