mayjawintastawm

I kind of expect a big cold dump in late October, probably the week before Halloween. I kind of get the impression there will be a good storm or storms by the end of October for much of NM, CO, WY. That does seem to be the trend in recent Falls, regardless of how hot they are, though this year the changes are all shorter and drier as compared to the last 3-4. 3 days of cold predicted 4-5 days out turns into a day, and QPF of an inch and a half turns into 0.5" or less 48 hours out.

A couple hours ago we had an 80 degree T/Td spread at APA, with a RH of 4%. I don't think I've ever seen it THAT dry here.

Meanwhile, the Mullen Fire has crossed from WY into CO, and if it were a CO fire it would be the second largest on record already. Sheesh. The closest official measuring station to me has just 6.24 inches of precipitation so far this year.

Last evening between 6-8 PM was the thickest smoke I've seen here in our 10 years, with a wind shift to the NE bringing down smoke from the Mullen fire (WY) and the trying-to-consume-all-of-Northern-CO Cameron Peak fire. It let up a bit later in the evening and is down to mild here this AM. More of a cold push than anticipated this morning!

I like this explanation. It provides a reason why one often does not find coasters on a table in Denver, as the DP is more often than not < the temp of the beer. On the other hand, maybe we just drink it too fast for significant moisture to condense and ruin the table. I also remember breaking more than one thermometer when I was a teenage weather geek trying to use a sling psychrometer to measure the WB temp and RH. I never found the heat index to be very useful, as the individual human variables that go into heat stress vary too much for some objective combination of heat and humidity to predict heat stress with any accuracy. If HI was truly predictive, we wouldn't have nearly as much to argue about during conversations about where to set the air conditioning.

Saturn (on the left), the Moon and Jupiter will make a nice triangle in the south tonight, with Mars slowly catching up from the east over the next few days.

That little fire keeps on going and going, soon to be in the top two largest fires in CO history if it keeps up. Consistent cooler and wetter weather can't come soon enough. That area is gorgeous.

Strangely, I don't think there are any active posters from that area in this subforum. But it's great to have you Walt- a legend from when I was back East in SNE- come by more often! Agree, WY is seldom in the situation it's in this week... often by now they've had their first couple of snows. There was a poster on the Weather5280 blog who pointed out that September has become an extension of summer over the past decade, rather than the beginning of Fall- warm and dry continuing . That trend is moving north.

Wow! let's hope you don't encounter that again.

No posts in a week so I thought I'd bump this up. Drought monitor for CO is only slightly better despite the snow/rain early last week. Lots of D3 happening. Denver has a couple more chances to break the all-time record for most 90 degree days in a year, currently tied with 2012. Anybody have anything else to report? Still quite warm and dry and smoky here, though the (irrigated) tomato harvest is better than it's been in quite a while. (were able to protect them last week)

My best guess is 1.5" here though that might be conservative. Definitely less than 2". Looks like the gradient with elevation is significant between 5500 and 6000 feet.

yeah, radar really looks like things are moving out quickly. This happens every time. We got about 1" as well, have to go measure. Total precipitation on the order of 0.6" WE at the most, perhaps less. My new rain gauge needs re-calibrating as compared with the stations nearby. Temp 31 at 10 PM.

Long as there's a good slug of moisture that gets into the ground, I'll be happy. Snow before the equinox somehow doesn't thrill me as much as it would in, say, October. But I have to say this kind of setup is something I'd kill for in February. Somehow the last few years, any 4 corners lows seem to come and go in a matter of a few hours.

wow! Congrats?!? Too much. Hope you get a lot of precip, in whatever form!

Smoke made it down here this morning. Smells like a campfire again after about a week respite.

101. Dang. My location has QPF of 1.32" for the Mon-Tues event. That's more than total precipitation way back to June 9th. And snow "accumulation" of 4.9 inches. Wow. Usually we wind up with about half the QPF that's predicted 3 days out, but we can hope.... the concrete patio around our house has sunk down about 2 inches from its normal height.

New PWS installed last night! It's a bit close to the roof so monitoring for too-high temps in the sun, but today it seems in line with other readings nearby. Wind, of course, has accurate direction but not speed. Trees in the neighborhood prohibited any accurate siting for wind. 98 for a high so far, that might be it. Temp rose 39 degrees in 4 hours this AM. We shall see what the drop looks like Mon/tues. Hope the rain sensor gets a workout!

May well be worse tomorrow when this week's comes out....

Bizarre. Because of no hail, a hot Jul/Aug, and no vacation (so I could water), I have more tomatoes and peppers than ever, the only good thing to come out of this summer. They are not yet ripe. It better not snow!!!

Weird. Closer to home, there is talk of a strong cold front on Monday just in time for the start of meteorological Fall with freezing levels down to 9000 feet- would be great if there would be some moisture with it. Wishcasting to some extent. Cough.

We spent the weekend camping underneath the southern one of those plumes- great to get out, but still coughing now that we're home. Sunsets were blood red. Saw a DC-10 tanker headed north toward the Cameron fire this morning. My goodness.

Bit of a heat burst just now, got windy then temp went up 5 degrees and dew point went down 5 degrees in the past 30 minutes.

me too... that one just east of Parker looked substantial. The NWS storm total precip graphic since Monday AM has quite a hole over most of the metro but especially the south metro- can't get it to copy, but you know what I mean.

Good to know, since I have to climb on the roof for mine. Will put the longest lasting batteries I can find into it!

Got an AccuRite Pro something... was sort of hoping for a Davis but they were too pricey.