When will it start snowing? (Leadville, Fairplay: for sale, vacation, estate)

[mariainlv]

Well, I am SO hoping for a mild winter to ease me and the kidlets into things. My kids will probably freeze! We are also moving from Vegas and my kids have only ever known San Diego and Vegas. Boy are they in for a surprise!

[Count David]

Originally Posted by mariainlv

Well, I am SO hoping for a mild winter to ease me and the kidlets into things. My kids will probably freeze! We are also moving from Vegas and my kids have only ever known San Diego and Vegas. Boy are they in for a surprise!

Even mild winters see big storms.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by mariainlv

Well, I am SO hoping for a mild winter to ease me and the kidlets into things. My kids will probably freeze! We are also moving from Vegas and my kids have only ever known San Diego and Vegas. Boy are they in for a surprise!

If you want mild winters, move someplace else. Mild winters here usually mean low snowpack in the mountains and dry conditions at the lower elevations--two conditions that cause real serious problems the following summer. Give me a rough, wet winter any day.

As to the kids, tell 'em to "Buck up, little campers." Truth is, kids love winter--it's the parents that P&M about it. When I lived up in Gunnison, a lot of winter mornings would see temps at -30° to -40° F. Back then, they didn't even have school bus service in town--the little urchins would have to walk to school in those temperatures. They did, and played outside at recess, too. Nobody ever thought anything about it, and they never cancelled school--at least in the years that I lived there--because of the weather. I never heard any of the kids bitching about the cold, either. Kids adapt.

[SheridanL]

Hahahahaha...I walked to school everyday in 3 feet of snow UPHILL!!! Yeah, my kids believe THAT one!!
Actually, I grew up in Denver, I am guessing I am around the same age group as JAZZ ( although I haven't had as many jobs OR known as many people in every single industry as him.) And I also had Stormy Rottman and John Cromwell as family friends...you remember those weathermen, don't you Jazz?? That being said....it will snow when you least expect it to and, it wont seem as bad as you think as long as you aren't from some tropical type of climate,...oops, you are!!!
You'll be fine and love the beauty of it all!! I will miss it like crazy!!!!!!!!!

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by SheridanL

Hahahahaha...I walked to school everyday in 3 feet of snow UPHILL!!! Yeah, my kids believe THAT one!!
Actually, I grew up in Denver, I am guessing I am around the same age group as JAZZ ( although I haven't had as many jobs OR known as many people in every single industry as him.) And I also had Stormy Rottman and John Cromwell as family friends...you remember those weathermen, don't you Jazz?? That being said....it will snow when you least expect it to and, it wont seem as bad as you think as long as you aren't from some tropical type of climate,...oops, you are!!!
You'll be fine and love the beauty of it all!! I will miss it like crazy!!!!!!!!!

Yep, I remember them--and "Weatherman" Ed Bowman, too--who hand drew the weather maps. Them was the good ol' days. I ran into John Cromwell at the gas station when I lived in Gunnison back when. He was driving through in a nice Caddy. We had a nice chat about--well--the weather. Nice guy.

[xeric]

I prefer dry, hot weather to snow. I may be living in the wrong place for the hot but certainly not for the dry. Now if it were about 10 degrees warmer, that would be just about perfect.

[xeric]

Originally Posted by proveick

It's been so warm Loveland can't even start making snow. RP

Well I remember when no ski resorts opened before Thanksgiving. Seems like a better business model to me then pursuing the novelty factor of opening a small green run in mid-October just to say that you're the first to open.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by xeric

Well I remember when no ski resorts opened before Thanksgiving. Seems like a better business model to me then pursuing the novelty factor of opening a small green run in mid-October just to say that you're the first to open.

The ski areas make snow so that they can have a relatively assured opening for Thanksgiving weekend--a feature in most of Colorado that Mother Nature does not regularly provide. It's all about the money. About the only ski area in the state that can open with near certainty by Thanksgiving just about every year with natural snow is Steamboat--because climatically it is influenced by the Northern Rockies-type winter regime more than any other place in the Colorado mountains. That influence lessens as one moves south and is essentially non-existent in southern and southwest Colorado, where late November and December are typically one of the driest periods of the year. In fact, in a normal year, most of the big snow there comes after the first of the year--often missing the Christmas holiday period as well.

One other note, though the forecast is for a dry winter due to La Niña, especially in southern Colorado, a long, warm dry fall does not always mean a mild winter. One of the absolute most brutal winters I ever spent in Colorado came after a long fall that saw virtually no snow as high as 13,000 feet elevation until nearly Christmas. What followed was a brutal winter in the Colorado mountains west of the Continental Divide with heavy snowfalls interspersed with very cold temperatures--while the Eastern Slope was warmer and drier than normal. One day that winter, I flew from Denver to Gunnison. It was 63° when I left Denver and 28 below zero when I got into Gunnison 45 minutes later--only 91 degrees difference in less than 200 miles.

[new2colo]

An update! Finally saw snow on Saturday, 10/9!

I decided to take a day trip from Fort Collins to Vail and back. It was mainly dry in the Front Range with a few sprinkles here and there. It looked stormy in the mountains, but I thought it was just light rain or snow.

The drive up I-70 was mainly clear until I saw the mountains just past Idaho Springs covered in snow above a certain elevation. It remained dry along I-70 for quite a way past Idaho Springs, until reaching the tunnel which was surrounded by mountains with a heavy cover of snow. The mountains just west of Frisco were obscured by precipitation and voila a light rain turned into a snow shower! The snow remained pretty light until climbing toward Vail Pass and it really started coming down. Descending into Vail all the heavy snow turned into a steady rain with a temperature of about 38F. Yuck.

On my way back the rain turned to snow no less than 1,000 feet up Vail Pass from Vail with very large snowflakes. The snow became extremely heavy toward the top of the pass where the ground was heavily covered and the temperature was around 33F. I have complained about Colorado drivers before, but the moment people saw snow on the ground, the scene got ridiculous. People driving 30 miles under the speed limit sitting in the left lane, others driving 20 miles over passing on the right--it definitely got precarious. Also, it was difficult to tell if the road was actually icy or wet. It seemed wet although the variable message signs warned that the roads were icy.

The snow lightened up tremendously on the other side of Vail Pass, but it almost seemed like blizzard conditions started picking up on the hill up to the Eisenhower Tunnel. That mountain was covered in snow, visibility was very bad, and there was no consistency in speed of anyone on the freeway. The plus side is that it was gorgeous and looked like a winter wonderland! The heavy snow continued for a short time on the other side of the tunnel, but then the clouds started breaking up, the roads started drying up, and the sun broke out again around Idaho Springs. I arrived back in Denver to 62 degrees and partly cloudy skies!

I realized today how quickly the weather changes in short distances here.

I can't wait to see snow in the Front Range! Although if the drivers I saw today are any indication at the free for all I have to look forward to, I will be staying off the roads!

[Count David]

Welcome to Colorado.

We drive terribly here.