Winter in Colorado, 2011 to 2012. (Grand Junction, Fruita: safer, vehicle, build)

[vfrpilot]

Originally Posted by Josseppie

Thanks to the Palmer divide this storm missed Pueblo.......

We live less than a mile south of the Palmer Divide and only received about 3 inches. Most of it's gone now.

[Josseppie]

Originally Posted by vfrpilot

We live less than a mile south of the Palmer Divide and only received about 3 inches. Most of it's gone now.

3 inches would be enough for a snow video from me lol

[DOUBLE H]

Been kind of quiet around the GJ area until 3 a.m. this morning as 35 to 40 m.p.h. winds came through here. No precip here though but it's a different story between Vail Pass and the Eisenhower Tunnel where KJCT-8 news reported a bit ago that stretch is closed for the time being due to high winds and snow.

35 to 40 m.p.h. winds is about half of what's going on around the front range, particularly between Boulder and Golden. Nasty, nasty winds!

[CosmicWizard]

DoubkeH wrote:

Been kind of quiet around the GJ area until 3 a.m. this morning as 35 to 40 m.p.h. winds came through here.

Even though the temp this morning is well above freezing, the wind made it feel like one of the coldest days of the winter during my usual 7 AM walk.

[jim9251]

60 in Delta yesterday, windy and cloudy this morning around 40. Meh.

[jazzlover]

Unfortunately, the winter weather of late is not helping the snowpack as much as it should, especially in the southern half of Colorado. The higher mountain areas are getting a little closer to normal water levels, but the mid-elevation areas (6,500-8,500 feet elevation) are still not getting much precipitation and are still extremely dry in many areas. That "lower snow" is important because it melts first, both helping to improve soil moisture in those areas as well a giving the first shot of streamflow for early irrigation before the "high snow" starts to melt. When that "lower snow" is lacking, fire danger skyrockets in early summer at the lower and mid-elevations in southern Colorado, and many of those lower and mid-elevation areas sometimes never recover sufficient soil moisture levels during the summer--that is, unless the Southwest Monsoon is early, persistent, and strong. Let's hope that the Southwest Monsoon is a strong one this summer.

By the way, I report this from personal observation. I've traveled southwest Colorado and northern New Mexico extensively so far this winter, and I personally visited one of the high elevation Snotel sites over the past weekend.

[Josseppie]

Pueblo got a fun snow storm this morning. Since I had not done a snow video in a while I decided to do one today. I did make one mistake as I said I had not done a video from the Riverwalk when obviously I have. I am not sure what I was thinking lol.

[Josseppie]

I was expecting 1 to maybe 3 inches of snow but when the storm was done there was 9 inches of snow at my house. My theory is as the storm cell headed south it got caught in the bowl and could not lift out giving Pueblo a lot more snow then usual.

Here are two pictures:





This shows that I had 9 inches of snow at my house.

[jim9251]

Speaking of snow...a good story on CDOT and Red Mountain Pass:

Special Report: Maintaining Red Mountain Pass - Local News Story - KJCT Grand Junction (http://www.kjct8.com/news/30519818/detail.html - broken link)

[Idunn]

An interesting article, with included video well worth watching. If nothing else, may one may gain a healthier respect for the potential of avalanches.