Denver: Weather, Living, Commute, Land locked etc... (Englewood, Cherry Hills Village: buying a home, employment)

[Metairie]

We are very close to buying a home in Cherry Hills Village this month. Relocating from New Orleans. We've been there 3 times and have researched extensively. We viewed schools, shopping, homes, etc... and are pleased. My last concern before buying a house (possibly making an offer this week) is the weather, coming the opposite really. I do hate N.O. heat and humidity so won't miss that, but hail, tornados, floods, blizzards all scare me especially with driving. Are those realistic things to fear in Denver Cherry hills, Cherry Creek areas? We both (husband and I) have 4 wheel drive high performance vehicles, 3 elderly dogs (pugs and a boston terrier), a 5 year old, and we are in our 30's. We have a business already, so employment won't be a problem. Other than hiring locals and the pool Denver offers of employees, but that shouldn't be a problem we assume. The land locked thing bothers me because I prefer to drive places than fly, but I guess I'll get used to flying for "ALL" travel. Any hints, advice? Thanks.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by Metairie

We are very close to buying a home in Cherry Hills Village this month. Relocating from New Orleans. We've been there 3 times and have researched extensively. We viewed schools, shopping, homes, etc... and are pleased. My last concern before buying a house (possibly making an offer this week) is the weather, coming the opposite really. I do hate N.O. heat and humidity so won't miss that, but hail, tornados, floods, blizzards all scare me especially with driving. Are those realistic things to fear in Denver Cherry hills, Cherry Creek areas? We both (husband and I) have 4 wheel drive high performance vehicles, 3 elderly dogs (pugs and a boston terrier), a 5 year old, and we are in our 30's. We have a business already, so employment won't be a problem. Other than hiring locals and the pool Denver offers of employees, but that shouldn't be a problem we assume. The land locked thing bothers me because I prefer to drive places than fly, but I guess I'll get used to flying for "ALL" travel. Any hints, advice? Thanks.

Actually you're more likely to be hit by a tornado in Louisiana than you are in Colorado. Louisiana averages 6.07 tornadoes per 10,000 square miles of land. In Colorado the number is 2.32. Tornadoes in Colorado are generally weak and short-lived. The state doesn't typically see the destructive long-track tornadoes that the central and southern sections of tornado alley experiences.

Hail is fairly common in the Denver metro area, especially from mid-May to mid-June, but it's typically not large enough to cause damage. Most storms are pea size or smaller. We usually have a couple hail storms that produce stones large enough to cause damage every year, but like a tornado their damage area is fairly limited and they're the exception not the norm.

Flash flooding does happen here, but it's not a major concern for most. Colorado experienced the worst flooding in the state's history last fall, but the people who were impacted the worst were in or near foothills canyon locales.

Denver rarely gets true blizzards - which are defined by the NWS as falling and/or blowing snow reducing visibility to 1/4 mile or less and sustained or gusting winds above 35mph. The main routes are maintained fairly well. Usually during a heavy snowstorm the neighborhood streets are impacted the worst because in most places they aren't plowed.

I can't really answer the landlocked question because I prefer driving. Yeah the metro areas are farther apart here, but unless your travel was exclusively in the southeast you'd have to fly anyway. It's not like driving to Chicago is somehow more convenient in NOLA than Denver.

[davidv]

The weather here is quite different. What you can expect most days is that it will be sunny and dry. The summer is sunny, dry, and hot; the winter is sunny, dry, and cold.

Denver is less prone to flooding than New Orleans, and the floods are more of the flash flood variety. A heavy rainstorm will overwhelm the streams and drainage systems and will flood an area for a short time. The flooding is mainly confined to catch basins (including some parks) and some low-lying roads. Very few homes ever suffer from flood damage.

While Little Dry Creek does flow through CHV, it is not much of a flooding threat. The catch basin for flood waters is the Englewood High School baseball and soccer fields, but they haven't flooded in recent memory.

There will be hailstorms, and the further east you are, the worse the hail and the thunderstorms get. Tornadoes form usually (95% of the time) east of Havana St., and touch down in the far eastern part of the metro area if at all. It could (theoretically) hit an area like CHV, though I am pretty sure that tornadoes have a vendetta against trailer parks, so they target the mobile homes.

If there is a blizzard, there will be plenty of warning and the city will shut down. Keep in mind, our definition of a blizzard may be different than yours. It takes about a foot of snow to shut down schools. Large storms like this don't happen often. There are years when schools are closed 4 times a year and years when schools are not closed at all.

Denver is an island, surrounded not by water, but by huge expanses of empty land. You are welcome to drive across it. It will take 2 days or so to get anywhere.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by Metairie

We both (husband and I) have 4 wheel drive high performance vehicles

Won't help when:
the hail slams into your vehicle
the tornado takes you to Kansas

[Metairie]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

Won't help when:
the hail slams into your vehicle
the tornado takes you to Kansas

Yeah I was referring to winter driving not tornados, sorry.

[Metairie]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

Actually you're more likely to be hit by a tornado in Louisiana than you are in Colorado. Louisiana averages 6.07 tornadoes per 10,000 square miles of land. In Colorado the number is 2.32. Tornadoes in Colorado are generally weak and short-lived. The state doesn't typically see the destructive long-track tornadoes that the central and southern sections of tornado alley experiences.

Hail is fairly common in the Denver metro area, especially from mid-May to mid-June, but it's typically not large enough to cause damage. Most storms are pea size or smaller. We usually have a couple hail storms that produce stones large enough to cause damage every year, but like a tornado their damage area is fairly limited and they're the exception not the norm.

Flash flooding does happen here, but it's not a major concern for most. Colorado experienced the worst flooding in the state's history last fall, but the people who were impacted the worst were in or near foothills canyon locales.

Denver rarely gets true blizzards - which are defined by the NWS as falling and/or blowing snow reducing visibility to 1/4 mile or less and sustained or gusting winds above 35mph. The main routes are maintained fairly well. Usually during a heavy snowstorm the neighborhood streets are impacted the worst because in most places they aren't plowed.

I can't really answer the landlocked question because I prefer driving. Yeah the metro areas are farther apart here, but unless your travel was exclusively in the southeast you'd have to fly anyway. It's not like driving to Chicago is somehow more convenient in NOLA than Denver.

Interesting, makes me feel much better to know Louisiana is worse for tornados.

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by Metairie

Yeah I was referring to winter driving not tornados, sorry.

Tires are more important than drive train. I highly recommend a second set of wheels for the winter with snow tires. It will make winter driving much easier.

[Mike from back east]

OP: You're gonna love Colorado. Dry air, few bugs, almost no tornadoes to speak of and mostly they are found well east of I-25 though every so often we get one along the I-25 corridor; IIRC there've been but 3 fatalities in this state in 50+ years. Weather deaths here are more related to lightning strikes or driving badly in the snow.

[ELCO5280]

Originally Posted by Metairie

We both (husband and I) have 4 wheel drive high performance vehicles

Please remember that it's 4 wheel start and not drive/stop... don't know how many times I see high performance 4 wheel drive vehicles spun out off the shoulder of the highway because the driver assumed their 4 wheels will track ice better than two...

[Mike from back east]

Here's a recent piece on tornadoes in Colorado, really neat interactive charts. The color coding indicates that most are minor with no damage.