I HATE this weather! (Denver: house, living, garden)

[sberdrow]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

I'm going to be back in Denver two weeks from now for about a month while I'm "in between degrees," and I hope it still snows! Probably not, but it has snowed in May before so you never know. If not I'm going to have to drive up to the mountains just to see snow. I feel like I've gotten ripped off, missing all the beautiful times it has snowed there-- even though I've been back for winter break each year. I am ABSOLUTELY sick of the climate here in Phoenix. The heat here makes me feel angry and aggravated, like I want to punch something. Ironically, when I first came to Phoenix I was intoxicated with the heat... well, flash forward four years, and I am sick of it. I wish I could be back in Denver this very instant, I don't even want to be here another two more weeks-- it's already getting hot and sweaty. I LOVE cold, icy weather. Unfortunately, I'm going to be robbed of another season of beautiful Colorado winter, because stupid me chose to attend a master's program in California. At least it's only one year, and LA gets nice and cool at night, unlike Phoney-icks. Now I'm starting to wonder if even Denver is too hot for me. I guess it goes to show there's a perfect climate for everybody-- one person's heaven is another person's hell.

Maybe Ill be like you in four years. However, I think If I left Phoenix, it would be back to Washington State and its 9 months of Gloom (but beautiful trees and volcanic mountain range). But for now I am loving the heat here in phoenix. I think your going to get what your looking for in Denver, or where ever your moving to in Colorado. You sound like me when I was 2 weeks away from moving out of Texas. When someone asked what was my favorite place in texas, I replied: My favorite place was the spot they posted the "leaving Texas" sign I barely saw because I was huauling butt at about 20 miles over the speedlimit. After I passed that sign, I flipped off the state of texas and giggled with glee.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by nelumbo

This is not a particularly special feature of Denver.

No, but the swings are much wider here. It doesn't snow on Halloween in most cities at this latitude, or even farther north. One of my daughters went to college near Minneapolis (BRRR!), and one went to college near Chicago. Both said true winter weather came much later there. Their friends from the local area were amazed to hear about snow on Halloween. And for sure, you don't get any 70 degree days in Dec/Jan in Minneapolis, and darn few in Chicago. Even in Pittsburgh, where the temps are more up down like here, the spread is narrower.

[BHallDDS]

I was in Denver on Monday getting my apartment rented. It was 75 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze. I came back to Chicago with temps in the 30s, rainy and winds 30-40 mph. Yep, I must agree...I really don't like Denver weather.

[nelumbo]

The nature of large and mesoscale atmospheric systems is mostly the same across the midlatitudes, although there are areas where development of storms is favored (Denver is not in any of these areas - the major ones in the northern hemisphere are off the coasts of Asia (east of Japan/Kamchatka) and off of the eastern US (stretching from east of New England up to Greenland). Fronts (cold and warm) are associated with these larger systems and are a major cause of rapid temperature changes, usually from anomalously warm to anomalously cold. In addition to frontal type situations, anomalously high or low temperatures can occur when a large scale upper level feature (trough or ridge in the jet stream) parks itself in one place for a long time - this doesn't result in fast temperature changes, but does result in multi-day binges of cold or warm.

The biggest differentiating factor for Denver is the location of nearby orography (mountains). Because it is arid, the air temperature tends to change quickly without the moderating effect of humidity (hence the large diurnal temperature range). Wind direction (cool upslope/warm downslope) can strongly influence both temperature and precipitation, plus there is altitude thrown into the mix. When a big upper level trough or ridge sets up overhead, you get more variability because of these local terrain features than you would in a 'flat' area, like say Kansas. Greeley down in it's valley tends to get super cold in winter (cold air pools and drains down into the valley); westerly winds will drive temperatures up very quickly, etc. Low pressure systems tend not to be as strong here (Colorado) as along the east coast (it just isn't as favorable location for them), so that mechanism for rapid temperature change isn't as potent as it is along the eastern seaboard.

Other locations in mountain areas, like Charleston WV, mountainous areas of New England, and pretty much anywhere in the Rockies, also have long tails on the snow climatology that extend into early fall and late spring.

I didn't notice much difference in variability in moving here from the east coast. A good potent low moving up the coast in winter would drag the temperatures up to 70 in the warm sector and then slam down to below freezing a few hours later. In DC, there was usually at least one or two warm spells in the 70s each winter, and it sometimes snowed in November or April. In Boston, it snowed in the middle of May one year, and the temperature on any nice spring day would drop from the mid 70s to the low 50s over the course of an hour when the sea breeze whomped in (while Hanscom 10 miles away stayed in the 70s). One year we had three feet of snow on the first weekend of December and the next year that same weekend was in the mid 70s.


If you want really crazy weather, try the arctic. During winter a simple thin cloud passing overhead can cause the surface temperature to shoot up by 20-30 (or more) degrees F - when the cloud leaves, the temperature falls right back down. If you want very very stable temperatures, try the deep tropics (within about 10 degrees of the equator). Incoming radiation doesn't vary much throughout the year and the high and low pressure systems can't survive there because the coriolis effect is too weak (even tropical cyclones don't tend to form within 5 degrees of the equator).

[RangerDuke08]

Originally Posted by LBear

EXTREME:
cold (-25F is the record - -40F with the windchill), heat (105F is the record, it hit 100F in Denver a couple times last year & it was in the upper 90's for weeks on end) wind (recorded straight line gusts of 75MPH in Denver), snow, thunderstorms, tornadoes (Weld County Colorado has the MOST tornadoes per any other county in the entire USA), hail (Denver has been called the "Hail Capital" of the USA - $625 million in damage back in 1990 - $50 million per year avg. hail damage in Denver), lightening (the Denver suburbs hold records for the most lightening strikes on people & property), etc, etc

There is a saying lightning never strikes twice in the same spot, I've seen it strike three times in the same spot just north of Denver, that's a personal record.

[LBear]

Originally Posted by BHallDDS

I was in Denver on Monday getting my apartment rented. It was 75 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze. I came back to Chicago with temps in the 30s, rainy and winds 30-40 mph. Yep, I must agree...I really don't like Denver weather.

You came here on the WRONG DAY. It's 39F right now with wind gusts of 45MPH and it will snow and/or rain tomorrow, just like Chicago.

Denver is that way. It will trick you with a sunny 75F day, with a slight breeze. Then when you are not looking, BAM! 40-50MPH gusts, 10" of snow and a blizzard.

[FunkyMonk]

I loved the weather in Denver. Here in SoCal the weather is boring, monotonous, prozak weather...... some people like it. For me me it was a great treat to actually see mother nature active and alive in Colorado.

[tfox]

Originally Posted by LBear

Denver is that way. It will trick you with a sunny 75F day, with a slight breeze. Then when you are not looking, BAM! 40-50MPH gusts, 10" of snow and a blizzard.

Yeah, it's like that from October to May, 75 degrees one day, snow the next, then 75 degrees again, then snow.

[suzco]

For the record, yes, it's snowing now, May 1, 2008 at 9:46 AM.

It's springtime in the Rockies.

[Sockeye]

...and the Front Range desperately needs this moisture. March and April were a bust down here.