Winter in Colorado, 2012-2013 (Denver, Pueblo: moving, rating, locations)

[Ming Ming]

Originally Posted by Snikt

It depends on where you're driving. In the city you're totally fine without.

Driving up and down hills in the mountains during snow storms, going out to ski resorts a lot it sure helps.

You always see RWD cars struggling going up I-70 in a snow storm, sometimes even FWD cars if it's bad enough

Just the DTC area and to the elementary school near there. If it gets bad enough my husband can drive them and drop me off at work.

[Snikt]

Originally Posted by Ming Ming

Just the DTC area and to the elementary school near there. If it gets bad enough my husband can drive them and drop me off at work.

No issues then, the snow (sometimes) seems lighter on the east side of town anyway. One problem though that I've noticed anyway is like on I-25 through DTC with it's 1000 lanes is lane identification. Once the snow falls and starts melting it turns into this brown slush and covers all the lines on the road, so you pretty much just pick a lane and go.

You'll also sometimes park somewhere when it's covered up and a few hours later when it melts you realize you weren't in the lines at all

[jazzlover]

Colorado needs one hell of a wet AND cold winter--the former to restore soil moisture levels and improve streamflows, the latter to kill the beetles infesting the Colorado forests. The statistical likelihood of getting both are very low, so probably the best we will get is one of the two. Right this moment, a wet winter is probably the more needed.

To see the bleak water picture that has to be "made up" with a wet winter, look at the graphic below of the current drought status in the region.



Below is the 90-day forecast for the drought from the Climate Prediction Center:



This paragraph sums it up:

These factors, along with anticipated precipitation patterns at least partially driven by the developing El Nino episode, should bring some relief to drought-affected areas in the East, the Mississippi Valley, the Midwest, and the northern Great Plains. The odds also favor some degree of improvement across a large swath of the Southwest and across southern Texas. Still, there remains a large area covering the central and southern Plains, the central and northern Rockies, the central Intermountain West, and much of California where drought conditions are expected to persist. Most of these areas are moving toward a climatologically drier time of year, and there is no compelling indication that substantially above-normal precipitation will fall during the next 3 months.

Whether or not an El Niño event will be sufficient this winter (from December-April) to break the drought in the southern and central Rockies remains to be seen. And even if we have one humdinger of a wet winter, it will take more than one year to recover from the hydrological drought that we are now enduring. One of the great fears among some climatologists is that this drought cycle is so severe (whether one believes it is being caused or enhanced by human-caused global warming) that it will begin to feed on itself, much as a huge forest fire begins to create its own weather. If that happens, this region could face a "once in a thousand year" drought that could be a real deal-killer for the area even being habitable for a fraction of the current population. There are a bunch of abandoned Anasazi cliff dwellings down around 4-Corners that illustrate what can happen to a society when that kind of drought occurs. We ain't immune to something like that, despite what the "technology-can-fix-everything" freaks think.

[CosmicWizard]

jazzlover wrote: We ain't immune to something like that, despite what the "technology-can-fix-everything" freaks think.

No worries jazz, the technology already exists. Just click the link below to purchase as much dehydrated water as needed: BuyDehydratedWater.com Free Sample Offer!

From the FAQ page: "Is your dehydrated water fresh or from concentrate?"
Response: Our dehydrated water is always fresh and never from concentrate.

[Snikt]

Reminds me of Perrier-Air from Spaceballs

[Idunn]

Driving in snow is only a big deal if you do not know how, do not have the vehicle for it—or encounter someone else with such deficiencies (minus any blizzards no one should be out in).

Do yourself a favor and do not drive in snow with a rear wheel drive vehicle. Anything front wheel drive is a big improvement. 4WD is best and preferable, but at minimum front wheel drive. Insofar as tires are concerned, proper all season or dedicated winter tires are mandatory; they are not just some fraction of improvement, but 100%: the most fantastic of snow cars is going nowhere without decent traction. Aside from knowing how to use the vehicle in snow—and slowing down—having good tires are the single best thing one can do.

***

As far as an early winter storm is concerned, it could be nice, although I see nothing particularly pending in the forecast. If memory serves there was an early and heavy snow last autumn, as I recall in early October; in places such as Boulder the heavy snow damaged many trees. Other than the poor trees and other associated damage, something to get psyched about. Unfortunately it served as one of the better storms of the season, and we all know how pathetic last winter was.

Some snow—after a pleasant autumn and some color—would be nice. But I'll be more impressed if it keeps it up and by Christmas, if not Thanksgiving, no skier has anything to complain about. Follow that by a few record snowfalls, and everyone more than ready to shovel themselves out by spring 2013—and we can talk.

Until then, despite overall trends of warmer and drier, the hope this coming winter enough to at least make up some of the present water deficits.

[Josseppie]

Snow in Colorado next week? Does that include the front range? I need to look up the forecast.....

[Josseppie]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Colorado needs one hell of a wet AND cold winter--the former to restore soil moisture levels and improve streamflows, the latter to kill the beetles infesting the Colorado forests. The statistical likelihood of getting both are very low, so probably the best we will get is one of the two. Right this moment, a wet winter is probably the more needed.

To see the bleak water picture that has to be "made up" with a wet winter, look at the graphic below of the current drought status in the region.



Below is the 90-day forecast for the drought from the Climate Prediction Center:



This paragraph sums it up:



Whether or not an El Niño event will be sufficient this winter (from December-April) to break the drought in the southern and central Rockies remains to be seen. And even if we have one humdinger of a wet winter, it will take more than one year to recover from the hydrological drought that we are now enduring. One of the great fears among some climatologists is that this drought cycle is so severe (whether one believes it is being caused or enhanced by human-caused global warming) that it will begin to feed on itself, much as a huge forest fire begins to create its own weather. If that happens, this region could face a "once in a thousand year" drought that could be a real deal-killer for the area even being habitable for a fraction of the current population. There are a bunch of abandoned Anasazi cliff dwellings down around 4-Corners that illustrate what can happen to a society when that kind of drought occurs. We ain't immune to something like that, despite what the "technology-can-fix-everything" freaks think.

The good news is according to the exports Colorado could be in for a cold and wet winter for the the next few years. That will give me a lot of snow storms to post in here this winter weather season....

This is from accuweather.com but I have heard it form other experts as well:


AccuWeather.com Long Range Expert Joe Bastardi believes there is a significant chance for particularly frigid winters in 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 into 2014-2015. Bastardi said these winters could be similar to winters of the late 1970s. He said, "While the most consistent of the cold is to the north, severe bouts of cold deep into Texas and Florida would be capable of affecting agriculture more so than we've seen in that last 20 years or so." A combination of factors that parallel the precursors to historically cold winters is leading Bastardi to this forecast. He said, "We have a cold Pacific now. We had a La Nina, El Nino, then a stronger La Nina [similar to the cycle] that happened in the early to mid '70s that set up the winters of the late '70s."


The link: Winters of 2012, 2013, 2014 Could be Frigid

[wanneroo]

Also keep in mind Colorado had quite a few way above average years of snow before this drought year.

I remember in the winter of 2003-2004 in Vail, it was a warm winter, especially at the end, and snow was very spotty.

The next 2 years we got hammered pretty good.

Last year all the cold air got locked up north. Back east I felt it last fall when it seemed the winds were coming out of the south and I was tasting warm gulf of mexico air all the way up in PA and there were few typical Pacific fronts moving across the USA. This year we are getting strong winds from the north. Reading the tea leaves I think it's going to be a cold winter for everyone.

[CosmicWizard]

wanneroo wrote: This year we are getting strong winds from the north. Reading the tea leaves I think it's going to be a cold winter for everyone.

I think you're right about that. I don't have any tea leaves on hand, but my gut tells me that your tea leaves are accurrately calibrating the wind.