When Do These Snow Storms End? (Denver, Fort Collins: spring break, 2013, hotel)

[katharsis]

I think this thread should be copied and given out to every potential out-of-state renter or home buyer considering a move to Colorado! Almost everything written here is so true -- from September 15 to May 15, it is simply a guess what the weather will be the following week (and often even the next day). I was following the forecast for this past weather bomb for a couple of days previous, and it seemed that even the weather sites were changing the forecast about every two or three hours!

Btw, here is an interesting map as far as weather predictability in the continental U.S.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...table-weather/

[Hschlick84]

Originally Posted by katharsis

I think this thread should be copied and given out to every potential out-of-state renter or home buyer considering a move to Colorado! Almost everything written here is so true -- from September 15 to May 15, it is simply a guess what the weather will be the following week (and often even the next day). I was following the forecast for this past weather bomb for a couple of days previous, and it seemed that even the weather sites were changing the forecast about every two or three hours!

Btw, here is an interesting map as far as weather predictability in the continental U.S.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...table-weather/

According to that link, Rapid City has the least predictable weather. Hence the name, 'Rapid' since the weather changes constantly.

[Count David]

This is why we put up with it. Because two days later, it looks like this (I was just out there in shorts and slippers BTW):







Even though, you still may have this (note, it is melting):

[BabyBoomers2]

Originally Posted by Katarina Witt

My, my, people are being touchy today! Did I say anything bad about Michigan? Or the winters here for that matter? And we don't usually have the cloudy days after a snowstorm. It's usually quite sunny, sometimes cold, often warm as in above freezing.



I have been reading your kvetches about the winter weather in Colorado for over a decade now. I don't know when you lived here, but you must have been in an altered state of consciousness the whole time to think the winters here are more harsh than SE Michigan/NE Indiana. I lived in Pittsburgh and Champaign, IL, both at the same latitude as Denver. Both had harsher, albeit shorter, winters than Denver metro. I've seen weather in the high 60s on New Year's Day quite frequently in 39 years here, also the same a few times on the 4th of July. A look at any weather website could confirm that.

We arrived in south Englewood in June 2002 and rented an apartment. In Spring 2004, bought a house in Parker, off of Hilltop Rd.. lived in that house until October 2007, when we sold it and heDed for North Carolina.

Had snowstorm during Halloween Week and Mother’s Day Weekend. My wife told me that she never experienced that weather in Lincoln Park, Michigan and I don’t ever remember experiencing either when I lived just outside Ft. Wayne, Indiana on the farm.

That’s all I was saying. If you experienced different, that’s your experience, not what I had.

[pikabike]

Originally Posted by katharsis

I think this thread should be copied and given out to every potential out-of-state renter or home buyer considering a move to Colorado! Almost everything written here is so true -- from September 15 to May 15, it is simply a guess what the weather will be the following week (and often even the next day). I was following the forecast for this past weather bomb for a couple of days previous, and it seemed that even the weather sites were changing the forecast about every two or three hours!

Btw, here is an interesting map as far as weather predictability in the continental U.S.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...table-weather/

Inland midcontinent midlatitudes (as measured between North Pole and equator) is least predictable as a general rule. New England is an oddball.

[sheerbliss]

Indianapolis is unpredictable, too. We had the polar vortex the other week, then earlier this week it was sunny and almost 70. Now it's cold again.

The first year I was here, it was so cold my feet hurt walking home from the bus stop one night. The next summer it flooded and I watched a tornado pass by. That said, I prefer Denver winters, but all other seasons, I like the weather here better, despite all its hazards.

[sheerbliss]

Originally Posted by RotseCherut

I can see now that I am just not built for Colorado weather. The summers also seem to mess with me because the sun at this elevation eats at my skin and makes me feel like I am on fire.. As well, the sun is so bright here it is hard on my eyes. I could spend 2 hours bathing in the sun in 100F humid heat in North Carolina as long as I had enough liquids. Here, I cannot spend more than 15 minutes in the sun before I feel like I am on fire. The extremes of COlorado are quite a bit and people should not underestimate the high elevation heat nor the intense dry cold and bi-polar weather patterns on their body.

Colorado is the first place I have lived where I suffered horrible allergies in the winter time. I use to have bad allergies during late SUmmer and early Fall in the Pacific NOrthwest until I made some dietary changes. However, nothing I do seems to help me from the constant sinus pressure, headaches and sneezing I get here, especially when that wind blows in the from the mountains.

I'm the same way with the sun. As you probably know, sunscreen expiration dates are real.

I had terrible allergies there--so bad that I took shots for them when I was a kid. The allergies pretty much went away on a wheat-free diet. Winter allergies are unusual. There's probably some crud blowing in from elsewhere.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Sir Quotes A Lot

I responded to your question about 'have I experienced Midwest winters'.

The rest was editorializing on my part about the general complaints about snow/winters in CO; not particularly about your post(s).

Sorry if that wasn't clear.

On the other hand, I find the 'our weather is better than your weather' implications to be trivial. Tolerance for certain types of weather is subjective. Some people actually enjoy everything the winter months bring. I understand that others have a preference for mild and sunny winters. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. Choose the climate that best suits you, and leave everyone else to their own preferences. Snide remarks about weather in other parts of the country that people are considering living in is actually counter to the claims that Coloradoans don't have a condescending sense of pride about where they live. Telling people that it's okay not to want to live here and then trying to rub it in their faces about how much better it is to live here is ironic.

Apology accepted.

I agree to a point. However, in the specific case of your response to my comment, you said "The winter snows can stick around for a week or so before it melts off" and I responded "A week at the outside". I then asked you if you had lived in the midwest, where it sometimes sticks around all winter. I was not expressing any opinion on any of this.

The point where I disagree is that in general, people do seem to have a preference for warm weather. That's why the sunbelt (which some consider Colorado a part of) has grown so much over the last 50 years, while other parts of the country have grown little or not at all. There is no city anywhere in the US except on the west coast farther north than Minneapolis, and Mpls is questionable in terms of weather. Colder than Moscow (look it up) in the winter; hot and humid in the summer.

Originally Posted by LoveBoating

We arrived in south Englewood in June 2002 and rented an apartment. In Spring 2004, bought a house in Parker, off of Hilltop Rd.. lived in that house until October 2007, when we sold it and heDed for North Carolina.

Had snowstorm during Halloween Week and Mother’s Day Weekend. My wife told me that she never experienced that weather in Lincoln Park, Michigan and I don’t ever remember experiencing either when I lived just outside Ft. Wayne, Indiana on the farm.

That’s all I was saying. If you experienced different, that’s your experience, not what I had.

"That's all I was saying". No, it's not all you were saying, and it's not all you've said about the winter weather here over the past 13 years. You make Denver sound more like Minneapolis, though it doesn't usually snow there on Halloween (usually, I think it did this past fall) or Mother's Day.

Average high in January in Denver: 45.
Average high in January in Lincoln Park, MI: 33
Average high in January in Ft. Wayne, IN: 32

[TinaTwo]

Originally Posted by LoveBoating

First, I will say this...….we should have stayed in Colorado (Parker), instead of moving in 2007, but...

I fell in the driveway of our house there after a major snowstorm, which ended up requiring rotator cuff surgery on the right shoulder. We made the decision to move, so, hopefully, I wouldn't fall again or my wife wouldn't. Well, low and behold, living right here in northeastern Florida, on a sunny/warm day, I fall in the parking lot next to our apartment. That required rotator cuff surgery on the left shoulder.

As far as "researching an area" goes, we sure didn't research this area very well. We were told that there was a very low chance that a hurricane could hit here. Well, Mathew was 50 miles off of the coast of Jacksonville Beach and we got bands of that here in Jacksonville, right where we live. Irma hit last year and came pretty much right over us and the damage done was very evident of things floating down the St Johns River and other damage.

Now, my wife was born/raised just outside of Detroit, Michigan in Lincoln Park. She encountered her winter seasons, but I really encountered them living on a hog farm just outside of Ft Wayne, Indiana during my high school years. Yep, hogs and chickens can't feed/water themselves. Every morning, cold and snow, I was doing just that.

Wife and I met in So California (Orange County). She moved there when her family did and I spent my years in the Navy in San Diego and Long Beach. When we met in 2000, I suggested that, after we got married, we move to the Denver metro area. In 2002, we did just that. Until that move, we had never seen outside Halloween décor covered in snow! Seen that in Oct 2002. Was there when the major snowstorm/blizzard hit in March 2003. Couldn't see a single vehicle in the parking lot of the apt. complex we were living in. It took a construction front-loader and multiple dump trucks to get the snow out. In Dec. 2006, at our Parker house, a blizzard named The Holiday Blizzard hit and we, along with other communities, were buried in snow.

Yes, for 5 1/2 years, we encountered some heavy t-storms, snowstorms, blizzards and below zero temps as well as absolutely beautiful summer weather. Or, should I simply say...……"Welcome to Colorado!" BTW, both of our vehicles had snow tires and 4WD on them.

Now, at 71 (wife) and almost 70 (me) we are packing to return to Colorado and all of the things we miss about it. Thing is, the winter months are just part of living there. Been here for 10 years and STILL have our winter parkas!

I love this story.

[jweb29]

hope you all got out yesterday! it was tee shirt weather in the sun!