Front Range weather questions (Pueblo, Boulder: live, lawns, water)

[mccants23]

Hi:

I have a number of weather/seasonal questions regarding the Front Range:

1. How windy is it overall? I am not talking about the occasional blasts from a storm, but what is typical overall? I have lived in the south central plains so I am used to the wind.

2. Typically, when do the first buds on trees start to come out in Spring; and conversely, when do the last dead leaves get blown off the trees in Fall.

3. Similar to the question above, when in Spring do the cool season grasses start to regain some green; and how late into Fall do they retain some green.

5. Does the ground freeze solid the entire Winter or are there times when the temperatures cause it to un-thaw.

6. What is the intensity of the sun like, especially in the summer? Is it annoying or tolerable? Do you have to worry about skin cancer more than other places?

[TinajaCo]

It's generally not too windy, we can get storms that will kick up gusts, and it depends on where you are in the Front Range (around Boulder and down around Pueblo tend to be windier than other areas). But it's really only windy if there's a storm blowing in or out, you don't have sustained winds that you see a lot of other places.
It depends upon the winter, and how mild it was to determine when blossoms first appear. I have seen them as early as mid-March, as late as mid-May. Average is somewhere between those two. Leaves generally start to change in September, and are gone by mid-November at the latest (again, it depends upon the weather, snowfall, etc).
It's pretty arid along the Front Range, and grass will be green as long as you water it. If you don't water, even if (or maybe more accurately, especially if) it's the middle of the summer, your grass will turn brown. When we get the late, heavy spring snows, the grass really greens up due to all the moisture content, and so the grass can be green as early as then. People usually let their lawns go dormant for the year around the end of September or October.
It's rare to have snow accumulation on the ground through the winter. Usually, we'll get snow and then the sun will melt it off over the course of a few days. That gives the ground time to "thaw" out so frozen ground is an exception rather than a rule.
You do have to worry about the sun much more in Colorado than other areas. Because of the elevation, there's less atmosphere the sun has to get through to, and so less is filtered out. As a result you are exposed to more sun and potentially harmful rays than you would be in other places, especially considering the 300+ days of sunshine we have. You should be fine though if you use common sense-- use good sunscreen, apply it often, and don't lay out in the sun for longer than necessary. Skin cancer I think is a bigger problem here than it is in other areas, but like I said if you use a bit of common sense it's not too big of a worry.