Winter 2013-2014 Colorado Weather Thread (Denver, Boulder: metro, dating, county)

[jazzlover]

^That is true to an extent. The problem (which Joss and his ilk can't seem to "get") is that we are in such a long-term hole in winter precipitation and soil moisture levels that it will take YEARS of above-normal precipitation to get us out of it.

Here are some "boots on the ground" observations that I made at a Snotel site that I see frequently. It looked like this snow season was off to a good start in early December, with the measuring stake showing nearly 50% more snow on the ground than was there last year at this time. As of couple of days ago? The snow had melted down (actually a lot of the moisture had evaporated from windy and much warmer than normal daytime temperatures) to below what it was last year on the same day. After those early snows, it hadn't significantly snowed at that site (at about 10,000 ft. elevation, by the way) in nearly 3 weeks. This is very eerily like the start of last winter--a couple of decent snows, followed by weeks and weeks of nothing, ending up with a winter snowpack total that was one of the worst on record. Oh, and the winter before that was also similar at the same location. So, will this winter be like the last two? Or will it break the trend? I don't know, but the predictions by the CPC are indicating a repeat. I really hope that they are wrong. One thing interesting about this particular location--it has been very seldom in the last 130 years or so that it has suffered multiple below normal snowpack years in a row--not even in the Dust Bowl 30's. One has to go back to the 1890's to see a similar pattern. So, it is already behaving in a quite "abnormal" manner right now. Judging by the amount of beetle-killed spruce in the area and the speed at which the die-off of trees is advancing, that is another indication of climate behavior that is far from the norm.

[timothyjames14]

Was just checking out the Breck webcams....seems to be coming down pretty good!

[jazzlover]

One of the common pieces of ignorance about Colorado climate and weather is that the weather that affects one part of the state affects another. A classic example is the typical December weather pattern. The northern half of Colorado west of the Continental Divide (Vail, Steamboat, Breckenridge, etc.) typically gets a fair amount of snow from storm systems coming out of the Pacific Northwest during December. In the southern half of Colorado, though, those storms will only bring light snow, at best, and often miss that part of the state entirely. Later in the winter, the southern mountains of Colorado tend to get pounded by storms coming out of the Pacific off of the southern California coast--and many of those miss or only hit the northern mountains moderately.

Unfortunately, the pattern of the last few years has been for the early winter storm track to remain farther north, while the later southern storm track has been weak. That bodes ill for the southern half of Colorado as far as snowpack. If the southern storm track is weak, it also affects the northern areas of Colorado, since that track does supply at least some winter moisture to the northern areas in the latter part of winter. If the CPC is correct in their long-term forecast for the winter, as noted above, then Colorado is likely in for a repeat of the last two dry winters, a repeat that the state can ill-afford.

[CosmicWizard]

Grand Junction weather update. The normal average high for December is 38.90. For December just gone by, the average high was only 26.61, which averages out to 12.29 degrees BELOW normal for the ENTIRE month.

The average low for the month was 5.48 which is also 12 degrees below normal. It was a cold month, but Jan-'13 was 2 degrees colder still.

For the entire year (2013 ), the mean temperature was a whopping 1.82 degrees below normal, even though most of the Summer was hotter than normal.

Grand Junction is a place of temperature extremes, very hot summers ( usually 10 -15 days of 100+ ), and very cold winters ( usually 10-15 days below zero ). Fortunately, the air is very dry, so the heat is not oppressive like the humid heat of the eastern US, and the cold is not the bone chilling cold of the eastern US.

[jim9251]

Snow forecast Saturday for most of the western slope, central mountains.

[jazzlover]

^This looks to be another relatively "dry" system for much of the state. In the southern part of Colorado and farther south, long-time residents are becoming extremely concerned about how the snow season is going so far. Areas that have not been bare of snow on New Year's for several decades are bare now. The forecasts indicate that the next chance for any significant snow are about 10 days away--that in normally snowy areas that haven't seen significant snowfall in nearly a month already.

[Neditate]

My fingers are crossed. We've had pitiful snow west of Boulder/east of the divide. Nothing but wind, wind, and more wind. Wish I'd gotten another 3 day pass for Steamboat!

[Neditate]

FINALLY! Measured 5" of snow this morning. It's falling at the rate of about an inch an hour. Eldora is the snow report "winner" of all the ski areas ... 8" of much needed powder.
The temperature is falling too - it was 34 at midnight and just now hit 10. Winter is back

[DOUBLE H]

In the GJ area, it has been snowing very lightly, then stopping since midnight last night. I don't think we're gonna get anything out of this.

[CosmicWizard]

@HH.....about 10 flakes an hour. A typical GJ snow event.