Snow in Fort Collins (Denver: transplants, job, appraisal)

[nostress13]

Looking to relocate from so cal and wondering if this snow season is typical? According to website, average snow season lasts well into May.
How accurate is that? I do get cold pretty easily, but love the change of seasons so I'm willing to bundle up. Am I kidding myself with a move to FTC? Any So Cal transplants have advice on adapting? Also, my husband will be commuting out of state. Is Denver International convenient and easily accessible in the winter? Thanks for any info.

[gpraceman]

Originally Posted by nostress13

Looking to relocate from so cal and wondering if this snow season is typical?

Absolutely not typical. It is rare (every few years) to get a blizzard here, even rarer to get so many storms in such a short span. This is an El Nino year, which has definitely changed our usual winter weather.

Originally Posted by nostress13

According to website, average snow season lasts well into May. How accurate is that?

It can snow into May and as early as Oct (sometimes even Sept), but that doesn't mean that we have snow on the ground all of that time. We have nice springs, but there is always the chance that we will get a late snow (much to the consternation of gardeners). We can also get 70's temps during the winter months as well.

Originally Posted by nostress13

I do get cold pretty easily, but love the change of seasons so I'm willing to bundle up. Am I kidding myself with a move to FTC?

I think you will be just fine. Lots of other CA transplants have adapted successfully and love it here. Those that didn't are somewhere else. CO is not for everyone. We lived in Santee (eastern suburb of San Diego) for 16 years and I absolutely hated the routine 100+ temps. I'll take the snow and cold here over that anytime (not to mention all of the other CA problems).

Originally Posted by nostress13

Also, my husband will be commuting out of state. Is Denver International convenient and easily accessible in the winter?

Only during the bigger storms are the highways and airport closed down.

[Mierkey]

If you dont like the weather in Colorado. WAIT 5 Min. it will change.

[pw72]

I've never lived in Colorado, but I do know that winters are very changeable, especially along the front range. 65 one day, 25 the next. It must be the only state where you can golf and shovel snow 24 hours apart! The trade-off is a longer possible snow season...I remember driving through in mid-September '85 and it was snowing in Denver! Of course, the next day was nice.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by pw72

I've never lived in Colorado, but I do know that winters are very changeable, especially along the front range. 65 one day, 25 the next. It must be the only state where you can golf and shovel snow 24 hours apart! The trade-off is a longer possible snow season...I remember driving through in mid-September '85 and it was snowing in Denver! Of course, the next day was nice.

Oh, not the only state by far! I grew up in the Pittsburgh area, it was like that there, too. The snow doesn't start there, though, till late Oct or early November and is over by April at the latest. Here, yes, you should count on snow from Sept through May with lots of warm, sunny weather in between. Almost always snow on Halloween, not so often on Christmas, frequently at Easter.

[eyetech]

nostress13, having lived in the Phoenix metro area for almost 40 years, and now in northern Colorado for 9, I can tell you that it IS a big change, but one I've loved. As for the snow here, it's usually something to be enjoyed--more than a dusting, but rarely a blizzard, and as several have mentioned, it doesn't normally stick around too long. The one thing I do not like about the snow here is that spring is the heaviest time for it. I'd much prefer to see it in the fall and winter (Oct.-Jan. ish!) By spring, I'm totally ready for flowers and green...not white!

[cobmw]

Snow is not the only thing you should consider. It's extremely dry in the winter (humidifiers needed), the wind blows a lot, the summer sun is intense, summer evenings are great, but them there's the West Nile, and as said by others the weather is very changable to point of being a nuisance.

[cobmw]

We came from SoCal. Others have described the Front Range weather as a B+ whereas SoCal is an A. I disagree. There's much more difference than that. In SoCal you do what you please (outdoors) when you please. Here you're constantly waiting for the right weather. In SoCal you'll hear "nice day" all the time. Here you hear it occasionally - and then only when the day is like a SoCal day. I'd give it a C at best. But then I don't know what you'd give areas with even worse weather.

The weather statistics are misleading. The Front Range supposedly has summers with daily highs averaging in the mid 80's. There are few days like that. Any clear day will be mid 90's and above. Then there are a lot of rainy, windy days where the temp goes down. It's like someone handing you a jar of marbles and saying that they are all grey. But when you look in the jar you see only black and white marbles. Yes, the average between black and white is grey, but that does not descrbe accurately what is in the jar. Same true for winter weather on the Front Range.

[eyetech]

I can't comment on the marble scenario, but I can attest to the beautiful weather in Colorado, particularly the front range communities. A few posters find this weather miserable, but having spoken to hundreds of transplants while at my former job, I can tell you that this is a terrific place in most people's opinions. Not as hot, as cold, as humid, as buggy, as congested or desolate as MANY places around the country. If you're an unhappy person, you're going to find misery wherever you happen to light. One thing this area can guarantee you, as Mierkey mentioned, is variety! If you're miserable about the weather...give it 5 minutes...you can be miserable about the change!
Nobody has to be a PollyAnna to give an appraisal of a place, but neither do they have to inflame the negative.

[Katiana]

I would agree, the preponderance of people like this climate. It took me a long time to get used to it, I must say. Like loveboating, I never saw snow at Halloween back in Pennsylvania, or even upstate NY. I had to learn to make my kids' Halloween costumes fit over a ski jacket. I never saw snow on Mother's Day before, either. I learned to pick out a long-sleeved dress for Easter, b/c it could very well snow. It snowed the day before Prom one year when my DD was in high school.

Nor did I ever see 65+ degree weather at Christmas or New Year's anywhere else I lived. I and many others kind of like winter to be winter. However, there are advantages. One year my DD had a smart-alecky boyfriend visiting from Seattle at Thanksgiving. As we got into the car to go to Colo Springs to visit our niece, he made some smart comment about it being 65 degrees. I wanted to say, "would you rather we had a blizzard?" I have seen that at Thanksgiving as well. I have seen a high of 70 degrees on/near the 4th of July, too.

Still, it is usually cool at night, and rarely humid. Every place has its drawbacks. The BF from Seattle got very defensive about all their rain.

The weather here is very changeable. Count on some hot summer days and some cold winter nights. Everything else is up for grabs.