mayjawintastawm

Good for you Chinook and ValpoVike! We are busting. Snow didn't begin till 6 AM and it snowed for 2+ hours accumulating 1 inch, then changed to freezing drizzle. What a difference a few miles makes!

It has to do with air pressure. Air moving from a higher to a lower elevation compresses, making the air warmer. Many times the difference is on the order of 5 degrees F per 1000 feet, which can create quite a difference- for example, if the Continental Divide averages around 12,000 feet in CO and the Plains are around 5000 feet, that's a 35 degree difference just from compression. There are of course other factors, but that's the basic reason. As to the part of your question about why it's warmer than the air that has been sitting around at a given elevation for a while, it has to do with cool air sinking. At night, if it isn't windy, cooler air will layer out. So if it's 20 F in Denver on a calm morning, then a westerly wind kicks up from the mountains, you get warmer, compressed air invading the cooler air. Many times the temp can go up 30 F in a couple hours with the combination of a Chinook wind and mixing the layers out. This time of year, you can get what we call "two-coat days": perhaps 18 F (winter coat) at 6 AM, 50 F (spring coat) at 9 AM, and 68 F (no coat) at 2 PM. Then again, you can get 8 F within a couple of days after 70 F (this happened Sat PM-Tues AM at Centennial Airport) when cold air rushes down the lee side of the mountains. Tough place to be a plant!!

2" at my place by 7 AM today- very fluffy. Couldn't be more than 0.1" WE total, probably more like 0.06". Hoping for more to moisten things up. Vegetation doesn't like to be freeze-dried.

Long as it doesn't get below 20 it should be fine... the buds are starting to come out and it would be nice to see flowers and fruit, especially this year. We've had too many 15 degree mornings in April the past few years.

2.8" new at our house, quite fluffy. Most fell at 18-21 degrees. Good thing the buds haven't quite popped yet.

1.5" overnight, for a March total of 12.9" and 78.1" on the season. Approaching a real winter!

We ended up with 9.4" of heavy wet snow after at least a quarter inch of rain. Great moisture!

We had 4 inches of paste accumulate from 8:30 AM to 1 PM. Will measure again after getting home from work. I'd guess probably another 4, just looking out the window.

6:30 AM: moderate rain, 37.1 F 8:30 AM: changed to light wet snow, 33.7 F

Right. My place now has a "winter storm warning for 4 to 10 inches" with 3.4 inches total at about 34 F predicted, and Castle Rock has a "Blizzard warning for 6 to 12 inches" with 4.7 inches total at about 32 F predicted. Kinda weird. EDIT, 5 PM: they must have been updating the different forecast products because they're now in line (7" here and 8" in Castle Rock). Still will be interesting. Historically, we change to snow sooner than predicted about 3/4 of the time. Gonna be one of those "heart attack storms" shoveling 8:1 density snow.

Yes- I'm planning to find the places with the best takeout and hopefully help prevent them from closing when this $&&t really hits hard.

Would be nice. Weather excitement around here has been somewhat dryslotted lately, other than the rain the other night, which all fell between midnight and 6 AM so was not exciting at all.

The BOMB CYCLONE.... (imagine echo there) - only time I've ever had to use mountaineering skills getting home from work.

I am kind of glad I don't still live in southern New England with this winter there... absolutely maddening for those who like snow there. "Missed it by THAT much" gets pretty old.

Looking like September and January along the Front Range. Could Albuquerque have a colder March than Denver? Sheesh.

Yesterday felt like Chicago. Brr. Today was truly a 2-coat day: started at 9F and topped out near 45. Feb precip at my place was almost 2 feet.(I'm guessing it's done). 65.2" on the season. Something tells me March will be like January though... hope not.

2" total from the past 2 and a half days; 0.5" monday and 1.5" yesterday. Cold this AM, down to 9 at our house! Hope that not all the storms the next 3 weeks will be as suppressed as they look now.

Welcome and congrats on the new job! I promise we won't complain about your forecasts. Probably the biggest shock will be $$$$$ for living in the BOU area.

Wouldn't we all!!! Been here 10 years and it keeps feeling more and more crowded. Probably the Larkspur/Monument area fits that bill the best right now... but 10 years ago, Castle Rock did, and now it's becoming overrun. So expect change... Make sure you have a steel or slate roof if you can. That area (N side of Palmer Divide) is a bit of a hail capital in June. Summer temps will max out about 90 or better anywhere below 8000 ft. But that's OK, as dry as it is. You will wish it was more humid sometimes!

Found this...

Relying too much on the running tally in my head, I think I have about 22" in Feb give or take an inch. 61.7" on the season, that I know.

Welcome! Question for you: what do weather enthusiasts in Hawaii get excited about locally? Guessing wind/wave events in the winter and trade wind/tropical wave interactions producing flooding in the summer.

9.5" total for this event over 24 hrs. . 53.9" on the year. Looking like real winter for a change!

So anyway, we're getting the band this time... 3.0" in just over 3 hours at 10 PM. Just shoveled... a good bit denser than Mon-Tues too, guessing 12:1. Still snowing pretty good, though radar hints it will taper off before long. We shall see.

Nice. Bust here too, 2.7" total. NWS point forecast was consistently over 6" and actually went up last night as I was getting flurries. 44.4" on the season so far.