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Mountain West Discussion


Chinook

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With winter coming and inspired by the International Falls thread, here are some notable cold records for Boulder (I'm using them instead of Denver because Boulder has continuous records in the same general location back to 1893).

Earliest sub-freezing temperature: 9/9/1941

Earliest sub-freezing high: 10/11/2009

Earliest sub-20 temperature: 9/29/1985

Earliest sub-10 temperature: 10/13/1969

Earliest sub-zero temperature: 10/29/1917

Coldest November temperature: -12 11/27/1919

Coldest December temperature: -24 12/22/1990

Coldest January temperature: -33 1/17/1930

Coldest February temperature: -28 2/9/1936

Coldest high temperature: -12 on 2/4/1989

Coldest March temperature: -13 3/9/1932

Wow, Boulder has been sub-zero in October...that's crazy.

Colorado climate at its best... :thumbsup:

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Gorgeous mountain wave activity today across all of the intermountain W ahead of the leading low ampltitude northern stream shortwave. Mountains waves in the Sierra Nevada, the Laramie Range, Front Range mainly in the Medicine Bows, and the Bighorns of Wyoming. I love mountain wave induced lee cirrus.

Gorgeous lenticular clouds

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Now onto the weather discussion.

Here are the QPF values for me:

06z NAM: 31.2mm

12z NAM: 29.9 mm

18z NAM: 31.1 mm

06z GFS: 26.6mm

12z GFS: 31.5mm

18z GFS: 20.1mm

Now, as to the precipitation type. The GFS shows some temperatures above freezing at 800mb. This shouldn't be too much of a problem. Maybe it will mean a couple of those millimeters will be in the form of rain. I'm not sure I want to shovel this much.

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It is going to be a mess of a commute Thursday morning for the entire Front Range Wednesday morning. IOt is going to be ripping it once you begin upsloping away from the Cheyenne Ridge and the northern Front Range. Foothills/Denver/Palmer Divide going to be a tricky commute. I am envious of you guys.

NWS going with 6-12" for the city in their winter storm warning now, with higher amounts for the foothills and Palmer Divide.

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Great pictures Chinook! Nice trapped wave action. That must have been later in the day after the leading low amplitude shortwave ejected based on the wave mode.

Sometimes the clouds amaze me. The lenticulars and even the little bits of the thin cirrus and other interesting clouds just didn't exist when I lived in Ohio.

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UPSLOPE WINDS COMBINING WITH THE
DYNAMICS OF THE UPPER TROUGH ANDJET STREAM WILL CREATE NEARLY
OPTIMAL CONDITIONS FOR SNOW TO FALL FOR SEVERAL HOURS OVERNIGHT.
TEMPERATURES WILL ALSO BE DOWN AROUND THE FREEZING MARK...ALLOWING
SNOW TO BEGIN ACCUMULATING SHORTLY AFTER IT BEGINS TO FALL.
FORECAST SNOW AMOUNTS MAY NEED TO BE BUMPED UP A LITTLE WITH THE
AFTERNOON PACKAGE.

Wow.

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UPSLOPE WINDS COMBINING WITH THE
DYNAMICS OF THE UPPER TROUGH ANDJET STREAM WILL CREATE NEARLY
OPTIMAL CONDITIONS FOR SNOW TO FALL FOR SEVERAL HOURS OVERNIGHT.
TEMPERATURES WILL ALSO BE DOWN AROUND THE FREEZING MARK...ALLOWING
SNOW TO BEGIN ACCUMULATING SHORTLY AFTER IT BEGINS TO FALL.
FORECAST SNOW AMOUNTS MAY NEED TO BE BUMPED UP A LITTLE WITH THE
AFTERNOON PACKAGE.

Wow.

Saw that in their discussion. I'm loving it. Clouds really starting to thicken over and especially north of Boulder. Still 52F with 48% RH, but the wind is out of the NE.

bfc-0.jpg

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Saw that in their discussion. I'm loving it. Clouds really starting to thicken over and especially north of Boulder. Still 52F with 48% RH, but the wind is out of the NE.

bfc-0.jpg

Yup, I've been watching the same thing here in Westminster. Love the anticipation before a big storm...and that refreshing NE wind.

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I just wish Greeley wasn't located to the NE of us. We joke that we know it is going to snow a lot when it starts smelling like slaughtered cows.

Ha, true.

From 9news.com...I bet a lot of people are going to have trouble getting to work tomorrow morning.

According to the Denver Public Works Street Maintenance team, they will focus their snow-clearing efforts on main streets and "streets with stripes." They will not treat side streets because it does not meet their criteria set for side-street clearing. That criteria is:

  • between Nov. 15 and March 15
  • 12-inches or more of snow predicted
  • prolonged freezing temperatures

Also, since the forecasts say there will be rain that turns into snow, the City will not be pre-treating the roads.

"Our anti-icer will simply run off the streets with the rain. We need dry pavement to make the anti-icer effective," the release says.

The City plans to address icy and slick conditions on bridges, overpasses on a case-by-case basis.

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Ha, true.

From 9news.com...I bet a lot of people are going to have trouble getting to work tomorrow morning.

According to the Denver Public Works Street Maintenance team, they will focus their snow-clearing efforts on main streets and "streets with stripes." They will not treat side streets because it does not meet their criteria set for side-street clearing. That criteria is:

  • between Nov. 15 and March 15
  • 12-inches or more of snow predicted
  • prolonged freezing temperatures

Also, since the forecasts say there will be rain that turns into snow, the City will not be pre-treating the roads.

"Our anti-icer will simply run off the streets with the rain. We need dry pavement to make the anti-icer effective," the release says.

The City plans to address icy and slick conditions on bridges, overpasses on a case-by-case basis.

Very interesting... No pre-treatment of any roads and no treatment whatsoever for side streets. I wonder if Boulder County / City has the same policies. Here at work, we just got the standard "Winter Office Closure Procedures" emailed to us. I live in Boulder Canyon and, as you can imagine, that road gets pretty sketchy with any snow, let alone 12 inches.

*Edit* - Boulder City Street and Path Snow Removal:

The City of Boulder's snow crews are ready to respond 24 hours a day from mid-September to the end of April to snowy and icy conditions. The snow crews work hard to keep primary and secondary streets and on-street bike lanes open, using materials and equipment that help reduce the dangers inherent in winter travelling.

Primary routes are the city's first priority for plowing and applying materials.

Primary routes are the major streets that run throughout the city. Two plow trucks are assigned to each of our five primary routes. (Multi-use paths throughout the city begin being plowed at the same time as streets.)

Secondary routes are the streets around schools and hospitals, most RTD bus routes, collector streets and streets requiring special attention in snowy conditions. Plowing of these routes begins at the same time as plowing of primary routes; however, there is one truck assigned to each of these routes.

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Very interesting... No pre-treatment of any roads and no treatment whatsoever for side streets. I wonder if Boulder County / City has the same policies. Here at work, we just got the standard "Winter Office Closure Procedures" emailed to us. I live in Boulder Canyon and, as you can imagine, that road gets pretty sketchy with any snow, let alone 12 inches.

*Edit* - Boulder City Street and Path Snow Removal:

I don't know this for sure, but I think Denver cut back on the snow removal/street treatment budget...or they are at least following more stringent standards after what happened in 2006-07 and 2009-10. If I remember correctly, they exhausted the budget about half way through those winters, with all the big early season storms.

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No chance for snow here in Bellingham, Washington for quite a while. In the mean time I'm really looking forward to tracking this and seeing all of your obs!

Totally crazy to go from 80 (with a -4 DP) on Monday to heavy snow 36 hours later. Every run on the GFS continues to show over an inch of QPF for KDEN so there hasn't been any weakening in the final stretch.

Enjoy the storm and take lots of pictures!

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Carolina native here recently relocated to Highlands Ranch. Love this Colorado weather - happy to contribute obs from down here.

Nice to have you. I just moved here this summer from east TN (Kingsport). Looking forward to the snow as well.

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