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Mountain West Discussion


Chinook

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The northern Front Range has moderate CAPE, a medium-high PW (precipitable water values) and some southerly flow today. I think some thunderstorms will be in the area. 0-6km shear of 20 knots is not too favorable for severe weather. Slow storm motions may be a cause for concern (again) with flash floods.

 

DIA new record report:  WET

PRECIPITATION (IN)  YESTERDAY        1.94R   
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Ridge of death, monsoonal moisture. The NAM and GFS say that very little precip will be east of the Front Range/Continental Divide but a lot will be west of it. The 7-day precip analysis shows a similar theme, but shows the rain around Denver that fell two days ago.

 

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For the Fort Collins official climate record, the last 11 months (Sep 2012-July 2013) have averaged out to just 0.05F above normal. In September, November and June, we had relative heat such that they were 3.0F or more above normal, but the cold anomalies balanced them out.

 

Compare this to the time period September 2011 to June 2012. This time period averaged at a scorching 3.02F above normal. Actually 2012 as a whole was 3.2F above... the warmest year on record.

 

I found an interesting fact. According to the NCDC "State of the Climate, 2012" web page, the USA was 3.2F above normal for 2012. The exact same number as Fort Collins.

 

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/2012/13

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A tale of two Augusts... looking over the DEN climate summary for August, the month as a whole was +2.1 F but more remarkable was the second half- looking at the daily departures and averaging, the last 15 days were just over +7 on average. Wow. Sept does not look to change that much, so far. Will be nice to have some high temps around 80 some day soon, I hope.

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This is the GFS forecast meteogram (06z). There are several days with 32C with 15-16C at 700mb on the GFS 3-hourly temps. This is bad news, as it could be 34C (93F) or higher as the highs.  As a side note, it was 97 in northern Montana yesterday!

 

post-1182-0-00739200-1378312913_thumb.gi

 

 

 

 

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Amazing weather for the NW. I was in Seattle in mid-July and experienced what would be a typical thunderstorm here- no hail, heavy rain, moderate C-G lightning and quite loud, for maybe an hour. The locals were all over it the next morning.

 

Meanwhile, DEN has had 3 records in 3 days: record high today, record high minimum yesterday, and record high minimum the day before. MOre to come this weekend... I wish the pools hadn't closed!

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Amazing weather for the NW. I was in Seattle in mid-July and experienced what would be a typical thunderstorm here- no hail, heavy rain, moderate C-G lightning and quite loud, for maybe an hour. The locals were all over it the next morning.

 

Meanwhile, DEN has had 3 records in 3 days: record high today, record high minimum yesterday, and record high minimum the day before. MOre to come this weekend... I wish the pools hadn't closed!

 

Two more records. Most points scored against the Ravens in team history, highest point differential loss by defending Super Bowl team on opening weekend. (I think that's what the article said.)

 

Yesterday (Sep. 5) was 12 degrees above average here

 

Today (Sep. 6) the low was 65, perhaps a record high minimum.

 

Year to date precip: 10.37"

Normal year to date precip: 12.57"

 

Fort Collins temperature departures for this summer

 

June +3.8F

July +0.1F

August +1.7F

 

The last half of August must have been +4F or +5F or something like that.

August precip: 0.57", which is 1.03" below normal. We are falling behind on precipitation, and it is looking more like a drought locally.

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forecast discussion

 

AT THIS TIME SO HIGHS OF 95-100 ACROSS THE LOWER ELEVATIONS SEEM
REASONABLE. IF WE HIT THE 98 AT DENVER THAT WE CURRENTLY HAVE IN
THE FORECAST THAT WOULD MAKE IT THE HOTTEST TEMPERATURE EVER
RECORDED IN SEPTEMBER AND THIS LATE IN THE SUMMER SINCE RECORDS
BEGAN IN 1872.

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I think today is the hottest day I've seen in September for any local area I've lived in.

 

95.6 at Fort Collins CSU. September of last year couldn't top that.

Sounds about right. I would have to check Sept 1985 when I was in college in Providence in a dorm with no air conditioning. I remember some records were set then.

This afternoon's high and not-quite all time Sept record in DEN: in the words of the immortal Maxwell Smart, "Missed it by THAT much!"

 

EDIT: Easier to find than I thought. Not even close. High on 9/5/85 in Providence was only 88, though with humidity it probably felt like 120.

 

EDIT #2: actually, no record for today for me. I lived in Durham NC in 1990 where it was 98.1 F on 9/8/90. Climatespy.com is a cool site.

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Sounds about right. I would have to check Sept 1985 when I was in college in Providence in a dorm with no air conditioning. I remember some records were set then.

This afternoon's high and not-quite all time Sept record in DEN: in the words of the immortal Maxwell Smart, "Missed it by THAT much!"

 

EDIT: Easier to find than I thought. Not even close. High on 9/5/85 in Providence was only 88, though with humidity it probably felt like 120.

 

EDIT #2: actually, no record for today for me. I lived in Durham NC in 1990 where it was 98.1 F on 9/10/90. Climatespy.com is a cool site.

 

Sure you aren't thinking of 1983?  That year was a torch in PVD, with high 90s and even a 100 on 9/11.

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I think today is the hottest day I've seen in September for any local area I've lived in.

 

95.6 at Fort Collins CSU. September of last year couldn't top that.

 

High of 94 at my house yesterday, hottest Sep high that I can remember experiencing anywhere. However, it seems the cooldown has begun. Had a low of 56 this morning, DEN hit 57 which is their first sub-60 low of the month. Running a few degrees cooler than yesterday at this time. Highs in the 70s next week!

 

Looks like the September record for Fort Collins is 97 from 1990.

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Yes, both Denver and Fort Collins both had a record high of 97, two days ago. For Denver, it ties the highest ever temperature in the month of September (as far as I can figure, based on the NWS web site.) From what you said, I guess that 97 also ties the Sep. record for Fort Collins.

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I think the models have a pretty good chance of rain for the Front Range cities tomorrow. QPF looks decent,  probabilities look decent on the SREF, CAPE should be under 1000 J/kg. Normally the convective rain forecasts for our area are not too good, but this time at least there is a front to focus the precip.

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I heard several nice rumbles of thunder, maybe 20 minutes worth this afternoon. The rain was barely coming down at that time.  Now after 7:00, it has picked up, that is, light rain, maybe 0.05".

 

Sometimes 40dbz on radar means a lot of rain, sometimes it means a little. Kind of like 25dbz for snow.

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Tons of rain here the past 48 hours as well. Up to 1.50" or so in that time frame. A few heavy downpours, but mostly just steady light rain off and on.

 

I've seen bigger rain events here, for sure. But the unusual aspect of this one is the steady nature of the precip, along with little temp variation. Between 8 pm Monday and now, my temps have only ranged between 57 and 63. Pretty unusual, and it looks like that will continue today.

 

Currently 59 with light rain/heavy drizzle and fog.

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