Winter 2013-2014 Colorado Weather Thread (Pueblo, Ridgway: floors, location, counties)

[jim9251]

Crystal clear morning, heavy frost, snow on the ground and 7 degrees.

[Josseppie]

Here is one picture of the snow storm I took yesterday in Pueblo.

[jim9251]

The 11-15 day projection is warmer than average or average and dryer than average. With that, we will probably be buried in snow.

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by Hipchik

Which means that you care at least a little bit, otherwise you would have said you couldn't care less.

Not meaning to go off topic on a weather related thread, noticed this item being bantered about.

Western slope tv has been quirky for a long long time. To this day Durango, Cortez, Pagosa, and some of the San Luis Valley towns have gotten Albuquerque tv stations. And Jim is right-coming up north from the San Juans the Denver tv stations are represented and I've been told Paonia does as well.

In Grand Junction believe it or not NBC didn't even come to the area until the mid 1990's and the same goes for Fox. When I worked on a couple construction assignments in the late 1970's and early 1980's NBC shows would be split up between KREX and KJCT. At that time the population in Mesa County was probably 25,000. Finally in 1996 KKCO came in and was established as the NBC affiliate. In regards to news KREX (CBS) has an arrangement with Fox31 out of Denver where Denver news at 9 p.m. is covered and the Fox31 Denver morning show comes on as well. I'd have to research this in regards to "why", it's got something to do with competition clauses. Jim makes a good point here because while Ridgway and the immediate area gets a little news on the Denver stations it gets nothing in regards to things that matter news wise.

[jazzlover]

Double H, I remember when KREX, KREY, and KREZ (Grand Junction, Montrose, and Durango, respectively) were the only TV stations on the Western Slope. They showed a combination of programming from all 3 networks. A few towns had one Denver station (usually KBTV Channel 9) and the Pueblo station (KOAA, usually), in addition to the "XYZ" station (KREX, KREY, or KREZ). In Durango, and most of far southern Colorado, the Denver stations weren't around--those places got the Albuquerque stations. All of this by "translator," where the stations were re-broadcast from a small transmitter, usually located close to town on a little hilltop. If you lived away from one of the small towns, you got a snowy picture on one channel if you were lucky. What's ridiculous is that meager sprinkling of stations generally had better quality programming than one can find on the 200 channels of cable/satellite programming now.

Radio was the same way--a few low-wattage AM stations in the little towns (it took quite awhile before FM stations were available on translator). I spent a number of years in rural Colorado listening to the clear-channel 50,000 watt AM stations at night--KFAB out of Omaha, KOMA out of Oklahoma City, KSL out of Salt Lake, KOA out of Denver (for years, I listened to the Evan Slack farm report early every morning, as did thousands upon thousands of farmers and ranchers from Canada to Mexico, and from Kansas to Nevada), WGN out of Chicago, just to name a few. Then there were the "pirate" high-wattage stations like XEROK out of Juarez, Mexico that broadcast at 100,000 watts (the studio was actually in El Paso, TX, from what I was told). Of course, they didn't come in well until about an hour after dusk and faded at about dawn.

And the TV weathermen? My favorites included "Weatherman" Ed Bowman on KOA in Denver, who hand drew the weather map live every night on a white board with a Magic Marker (I'd like to see one of these "talking heads" try to do that today), and Stormy Rottman on KBTV--who cut his teeth as a meteorologist in World War II in the Army Air Corp in Burma during the China Airlift. Those two guys had a lot to do with me having a lifelong interest in climatology and weather.

Of course, trying to explain how things were in rural Colorado back then to today's crop of transplants and newbies--well, I might as well be speaking in Navajo.

[jim9251]

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR EASTERN UTAH AND WESTERN
COLORADO.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY

THERE IS A CHANCE OF SNOW OVER THE WESTERN COLORADO MOUNTAINS ON
WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND THURSDAY. ANY SNOW ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED
TO BE LIGHT.

Sunny calm days and cool nights. Very pleasant.

[jim9251]

The national weather service in grand junction has issued a
winter weather advisory for snowfall...which is in effect from 11 am
friday to 2 am mst saturday.

* timing...snow will begin across the high peaks of the san juan
and elk mountains friday by late tomorrow morning. Rain may be
mixed with snow at the lower elevations through friday
afternoon. The snow coverage and intensity will be increasing
through the late afternoon hours with the heaviest snow with
rates...up to an inch per hour...expected from early evening to
midnight.

* snow accumulation...above 9000 feet 4 to 8 inches with locally
high amounts above 12000 feet.

* snow level...near 9000 feet through late afternoon...falling to
the mountain bases after sunset.

[Josseppie]

There is a chance for snow at the Bronco game Sunday night in Denver. Plus it will be cold......

[jim9251]

Today is the Pick Day of the week with mostly sunny skies and afternoon temperatures around 5 degrees above normal for mid-November. High clouds will invade and thicken this afternoon and overnight. Moisture increases on Tuesday with afternoon showers forming mainly over the northern and central zones. Chance of showers continues into Wednesday and becomes widespread on Thursday as a cold front passes over the region. A drier air mass works over the northern and central zones for the remainder of the week. But showers remain possible into the weekend across the south.

[jim9251]

The national weather service in grand junction has issued a
winter weather advisory for heavy snow...which is in effect from 4 pm
this afternoon to 7 pm mst thursday. A winter storm watch has also
been issued. This winter storm watch is in effect from thursday
night through friday afternoon.

* timing...snow will begin around 4pm today and end around 7pm
thursday. A break in precipitation is expected for a few hours
before snow begins again thursday night from south to north. The
heaviest snow is expected late morning on friday.

* snow accumulation...6 to 10 inches through 7pm thursday...with
up to 12 inches at the highest southwest facing locations.
Significant additional accumulations are possible thursday night
and friday.