Winter in Colorado, 2012-2013 (Pueblo, Grand Junction: school, subsidized, price)

[Sonic_Spork]

Husband was worried about me driving in my minivan to work because of high winds.

However my experience was that the wind was my friend. It was scouring the snow off the roads and keeping them less treacherous, at least early on in the snow event this morning down here. It was the areas where the wind couldn't reach that we saw a bit of accumulation and slickness. I didn't feel that the wind was pushing me or tipping my van in any way...but I was driving rather slowly.

Safe travels to anyone in the state who has to go out, and best wishes to you all. Wish I could have stayed home by the fire!

[Josseppie]

Pueblo is now under a winter weather advisory for 5-10 inches of snow with strong winds.

Here are some pictures I took of the storm. I will do a video this afternoon.





This was the start of the storm with the view from my living room.





This is downtown now.....

I went ahead and made a quick video.

[jim9251]

The following are preliminary precipitation reports from western
colorado and eastern utah, ending around 10 am wednesday. The first
value is rainfall or water amounts in snow, and the second value is
snowfall. Amounts are in inches.

Western colorado and eastern utah 24 hour stations,

aspen, 0.17.
Cortez, 0.10.
Craig, 0.19.
Durango, 0.10.
Grand junction, 0.49, 4.6.
Meeker, 0.24.
Montrose, 0.20.
Canyonlands airport, 0.43.

Official cooperative stations

western colorado

black canyon np, 0.37, 5.4.
Collbran 2sw, 0.32, 4.5.
Colorado national mon, 0.53, 6.2.
Cortez, 0.13, 1.3.
Crested butte, 0.28, 4.8.
Glade park 17w, 0.75, 7.0.
Gunnison 3sw, 0.07, 1.2.
Massadona, 4.0.
Montrose, 0.31, 3.4.
Palisade, 0.21, 3.0.
Rangely 1e, 8.5.
Rifle 3ene, 0.12, 2.9.
Shoshone, 0.32, 4.2.
Steamboat springs, 0.46, 7.1.

Unofficial stations,

2 miles north of avon, 0.19, 2.8.
33 miles north of craig, 0.05, 1.3.
7 miles north of bayfield, 0.27, 3.1.
Breen, 4.0.
Castle valley, 5.0.
Cedaredge 4nne, 2.0.
Clifton 2w, 4.0.
Collbran, 0.31, 5.1.
De beque, 5.0.
Delta area, 0.5.

Durango 18nne, 6.0.
1 mile northwest of fruita, 0.45, 6.2.
Gothic, 0.63, 10.5.
Grand junction area, 3.0 to 5.0.
Redlands area of grand junction, 3.3 to 5.0.
Gypsum, 5.0.
5 west northwest of hotchkiss, 0.11, 1.0.
1 mile east of mesa, 0.41, 6.2.
6 miles south of mesa, 0.55, 8.0.
5 miles northwest of mack, 0.16, 3.0.
Montrose area, 4.0 to 6.0
15 miles west of montrose, 0.52, 6.0.
New castle, 0.52, 6.0.
Rangely 7ne, 10.8.

Rico, 7.0.
3 miles south of ridgway, 0.11, 2.6.
Ridgway, 5.0.
1 mile east of silt, 0.49, 4.6.
1 mile southeast of steamboat springs, 0.62, 6.0.
Steamboat springs, 0.53, 6.5.
Wolcott 2n, 0.18, 2.2.
Vernal, 4.0.

Powderhorn ski, 8.0.
Snowmass ski, 0.66, 11.0.
Telluride ski, 0.75, 7.5.

Red mountain pass, 0.70, 7.0.
Monument, 0.38, 5.5.
Molas pass, 0.75, 10.0.
Coal bank pass, 1.05, 12.0.

[Josseppie]

The snow has moved out of Pueblo and I will measure at my house tonight to see how much we got but with all the wind I am not sure how accurate it will be. With how much it did snow my guess is 4-8 inches.

[jazzlover]

Thanks for posting the storm stats, Jim. This storm was, well, a snoozer. Just typical December stuff for Colorado. Just like I predicted it most likely would be. In years past, this would have engendered little more comment than, "Well, it snowed a little last night." Yes, it will be cold tonight. Maybe even, oh, horrors!, down below zero some places overnight. Which also actually happens fairly often in Colorado in December.

[jim9251]

It's clear and 4 below zero this morning here, and -22 in Ridgway. At least the wind isn't blowing. Another snow storm is forecast for Monday. Let's hope this is a trend. The last snow was a very dry powder, typical of December.

[jazzlover]

Well, the latest drought forecast has just been issued by the Climate Prediction Center. As I expected, the forecast for the central and southern Rockies and the Great Plains states remains dismal through the end of March--the biggest part of the winter/spring snowpack season. If the forecast pans out--and the CPC has been pretty accurate in the last few years with their forecasts--2013 may be one of most dismal water years on record in the southern Rockies. Like the 1930's Dust Bowl, this may be a "game changer" for the whole region, only with impacts on far more people.

Distressing as the situation appears in Colorado, the prediction of continued drought in a good chunk of the US's prime agricultural region of the Midwest portends serious potential trouble on food supplies and prices. I don't believe that people yet realize the seriousness of the drought situation and how it is going to impact them. With some 46 million of the US population now on food stamps (15% of the population), just imagine the impacts if the food supplies just aren't enough for everybody to eat. It could happen next year.

Here's the graphic:

[CosmicWizard]

jazz.....We'll all have to deal with it if your dire expectations pan out. Maybe it will come to pass, maybe it won't. Fretting about it now, won't keep it from happening. If anything the negative expectation sets up an attractive force that makes it more likely to happen. Think Snow! Think Rain! Think rushing rivers! Think green! Think about what you want rather than focusing so much on what you don't want. Or maybe you just won't let go of it because you actually want the dire conditions you speak of so often.

[dynimagelv]

To the Cosmic Lizard....thanks....Thought about rain n rushing rivers n now I gootta pee...

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by CosmicWizard

jazz.....We'll all have to deal with it if your dire expectations pan out. Maybe it will come to pass, maybe it won't. Fretting about it now, won't keep it from happening. If anything the negative expectation sets up an attractive force that makes it more likely to happen. Think Snow! Think Rain! Think rushing rivers! Think green! Think about what you want rather than focusing so much on what you don't want. Or maybe you just won't let go of it because you actually want the dire conditions you speak of so often.

No, what needs to be happening is for people to acknowledge that we face very serious problems and they need to plan to deal with it. While I don't want the dire conditions of which I write (I get to suffer a lot of the ill-effects from them, too), it may take such a b****-slap of a disaster to actually wake people up to reality. It seems that is the only thing that will get our attention these days.