tacoman25 Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 I would love for the 12z NAM to verify... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayjawintastawm Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 This is a pretty good place to start. Information directly from the NWS. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/bou/?n=climo According to the information I get from the assistant state climatologist, the Fort Collins April 2011 monthly precipitation was 2.05". This was exactly the average for the month (100% of normal). This ranks as the 44th wettest April in the 123 year record (1889-2011). I have never seen a month that was exactly average on precipiation. Weird. Fort Collins seasonal snowfall is 23.7" which is 33.5" below normal (41% of normal). This ranks as the 8th least snowy season in the 122 year record. The last snow season with less than or equal snowfall was 1950 with 21.2". I also read an article in the newspaper saying that the Cameron Pass average snow depth is 133", with a maximum of 161". This is in late April or May. At Joe Wright Reservoir, the snow water equivalent was 194% on May 4th. Some snowpack monitoring sites have over 200% of normal SWE. Thanks. I found a fair amount about yearly stuff but month by month was harder to get. I'll try the NCDC and see if I can get something that I can put into Excel. Fort Collins has been positively a monsoon lately, compared to points south! It's looking like we will have raging rivers with bone dry earth (non-irrigated) soon. That NAM does look tempting though. 0.75" - wow, tropical if it were to verify. It would figure, as my daughter and my wife have an all day field trip followed by the Rockies game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tacoman25 Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Thanks. I found a fair amount about yearly stuff but month by month was harder to get. I'll try the NCDC and see if I can get something that I can put into Excel. Fort Collins has been positively a monsoon lately, compared to points south! It's looking like we will have raging rivers with bone dry earth (non-irrigated) soon. That NAM does look tempting though. 0.75" - wow, tropical if it were to verify. It would figure, as my daughter and my wife have an all day field trip followed by the Rockies game. The runs just keep getting wetter and prolonging the precip...look what 18z NAM shows for just 24 hours from Wed afternoon through Thu afternoon. If this kind of heavy, prolonged rainfall occurs, we could be looking at rapidly rising streams/rivers and flooding - as you alluded. Will be interesting to read the NWS discussion this afternoon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinook Posted May 10, 2011 Author Share Posted May 10, 2011 Yes, that is nice to see. I see the GFS giving us 0.50" to 1.0" in northeast Colorado. I guess I will find out if my wiper blades work. Yikes! The street could be slippery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinook Posted May 11, 2011 Author Share Posted May 11, 2011 - I heard thunder! -the radar is bright-banding, which means there's melting snow -we got 0.16" in over an hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baroclinic_instability Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Yes, that is nice to see. I see the GFS giving us 0.50" to 1.0" in northeast Colorado. I guess I will find out if my wiper blades work. Yikes! The street could be slippery. Agreed--glad to see the first decent 4-corners stacked/cutoff upper low. The area needs the precip badly--even if it comes with the negatives like stream flooding, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tacoman25 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Agreed--glad to see the first decent 4-corners stacked/cutoff upper low. The area needs the precip badly--even if it comes with the negatives like stream flooding, etc. Over half an inch of precip already from this storm for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayjawintastawm Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 I like this. Unfortunately my rain gauge stopped working for some reason, sometime in the past week. Maybe it got bored Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tacoman25 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Latest NAM gives Denver metro about 1"-1.5" more on top of the precip already fallen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amped Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 Snowing in northeast Denver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tacoman25 Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 33 with moderate snow at DEN now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayjawintastawm Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 33 with moderate snow at DEN now. Brrr. Just for laughs... the high at DEN today was 44. The high on Christmas was 52. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amped Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 Most Denver may afternoons are similar to Sandiego. With one or two days having snow or a giant hailstorm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tacoman25 Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 Most Denver may afternoons are similar to Sandiego. With one or two days having snow or a giant hailstorm. That's somewhat true, at least as far as temperatures go. But May happens to be Denver's wettest month on average (2.40"), while San Diego tends to be quite dry in May. Frequent rainfalls are common in May here. What isn't common is a massive, multiple day storm like we're seeing. DEN is up to 2.27" for the storm, and the rain continues. This is easily the most impressive prolonged precipitation event I've seen here since August 2008. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandy Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 I'm jealous! It's been damp here in Boulder, but really since noon yesterday the heavier precip has avoided us. At the university we've recorded a total of 1.07" of rain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tacoman25 Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 I'm jealous! It's been damp here in Boulder, but really since noon yesterday the heavier precip has avoided us. At the university we've recorded a total of 1.07" of rain. Yeah, this is one of those weird storms where the heaviest precip has stayed on the eastern side of the metro area. Judging by radar trends, I better some places directly east of the city about 10-20 miles have received well over 3" of precip. DEN up to 2.45" for the storm, incredible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinook Posted May 13, 2011 Author Share Posted May 13, 2011 We got 1.6 to 1.7" since Tuesday night. I can see snow at 7500ft in the distance (5-15 miles away) Awesome. Maybe we will be in a lower drought category. Currently it is D2 drought for all areas south and east of Loveland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tacoman25 Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 We got 1.6 to 1.7" since Tuesday night. I can see snow at 7500ft in the distance (5-15 miles away) Awesome. Maybe we will be in a lower drought category. Currently it is D2 drought for all areas south and east of Loveland. Considering a lot of east Denver metro and the plains got about the same amount of precip they'd had the entire year up to this point, I'm sure this will help alleviate the drought situation quite a bit. And the upcoming pattern looks fairly active, this could end up being a very wet month. Just a fantastic spring day. Temps in the upper 50s, barely a breeze, snow in the foothills/mountains, and everything vibrant and green after the huge storm we just had. DEN ended up with 2.52" in about 36 hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tacoman25 Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Today was the third day of the past four that failed to get out of the 40s here. Extremely unusual for May...average high is around 70 now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baroclinic_instability Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Considering a lot of east Denver metro and the plains got about the same amount of precip they'd had the entire year up to this point, I'm sure this will help alleviate the drought situation quite a bit. And the upcoming pattern looks fairly active, this could end up being a very wet month. Just a fantastic spring day. Temps in the upper 50s, barely a breeze, snow in the foothills/mountains, and everything vibrant and green after the huge storm we just had. DEN ended up with 2.52" in about 36 hours. This next storm is going to be another decent precip maker--especially the mountains and northern front range. 2 four corner cutoffs in a week period after not seeing one for a year--weather is weird sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mnweather Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 This next storm is going to be another decent precip maker--especially the mountains and northern front range. 2 four corner cutoffs in a week period after not seeing one for a year--weather is weird sometimes. You gotta love those extremes though. It makes it all worthwhile! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tacoman25 Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Yet another day that failed to reach 50 at DEN. This makes 4 out of the past 5...as far as I can tell, this has never happened in May before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandy Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 This next storm is going to be another decent precip maker--especially the mountains and northern front range. 2 four corner cutoffs in a week period after not seeing one for a year--weather is weird sometimes. Models look like they want to pull it further north now. Still a good rainstorm but not like last week's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tacoman25 Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Models look like they want to pull it further north now. Still a good rainstorm but not like last week's. Latest NAM still puts out some very healthy totals for much of the Front Range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tacoman25 Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Latest model runs have shifted the storm tomorrow/Thu south a bit. Wouldn't be surprised to see this end up as a 1-2" hit for much of the Denver to Fort Collins corridor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandy Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Yeah the model outlook has definitely improved today for a good rain event. I'm loving this rainy pattern. My softball team may never play again at this rate, but it's fantastic none the less. The air smells alive with water and plant growth. I'd take another month or two of this pattern were it up to me! Plus rain bike rides are fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nomad Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I'm glad it's raining out there, but it sure did put a damper on my trip this past weekend. Have any of you been up to the mountains recently? I was up at Bear Lake and it's still frozen with lots of snow on top of it. Isn't it usually at least partially thawed by this point? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandy Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I went up to RMNP at the end of May last year and I'd say the lakes were about 50% thawed. They might be running a little behind schedule this year but not terribly so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tacoman25 Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I went up to RMNP at the end of May last year and I'd say the lakes were about 50% thawed. They might be running a little behind schedule this year but not terribly so. I think they are definitely behind schedule. Last year was an unusually late thaw...I also went up to Rocky Mountain National Park last Memorial Day Weekend, and the ranger I talked to said that usually the trails didn't have so much snow and the lakes were normally totally thawed by then. For example, Grand Lake's average high is around 60 by now. Bear Lake is about 1,000' higher than Grand Lake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandy Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I think they are definitely behind schedule. Last year was an unusually late thaw...I also went up to Rocky Mountain National Park last Memorial Day Weekend, and the ranger I talked to said that usually the trails didn't have so much snow and the lakes were normally totally thawed by then. For example, Grand Lake's average high is around 60 by now. Bear Lake is about 1,000' higher than Grand Lake. Are you trying to imply that my one year of anecdotal evidence isn't sufficient to make broad conclusions about snow/ice pack? Fair enough. On that hike we went up to Emerald Lake (great spot!) and there was still a good couple feet of snow up there. Here's a story that just popped up about this year: http://www.dailycamera.com/state-west-news/ci_18086944 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.