Mountain West Discussion

[mayjawintastawm]

Note to self: stratus + cold front=no daily rise in temps and no instability, no matter what forecasts say. Upslope was minimal this time.

[Chinook]

Fort Collins got 0.8-0.9" from last night. That's pretty heavy, considering it's just past the end of what I would call the monsoon. Comparatively, my place in Toledo beat Fort Collins this week, with rainfall and exciting late-night lightning. We need this stuff for the corn. I was missing the lightning for a lot of June when Fort Collins was getting way more rain.

[Chinook]

Low clouds hanging around in Forest Canyon

[mayjawintastawm]

Been a week so I thought I'd post something. Late summer here has been so hot lately. Noticed that this August was the first since 2018 that was not in the top 6 warmest for DEN, though still quite warm (especially the end!) and, for some, trending drier again east of the Divide and south of FoCo. Early Sept lately has been nuts compared to climatology. Thought highs in the upper 90s were done... not yet.

[Newman]

NWS Cheyenne mentions snowflakes at the high peaks this weekend. Point and click showing snow in the Snowies around Medicine Bow Peak for Saturday night-Monday

[smokeybandit]

I volunteered to chaperone my son's multi-day outdoor education program the beginning of next week.

Rain and mud and 6th graders. Fun times! 

[Chinook]

Denver: chance of rain, all days

 

[mayjawintastawm]

On 9/7/2023 at 11:27 AM, smokeybandit said:

I volunteered to chaperone my son's multi-day outdoor education program the beginning of next week.

Rain and mud and 6th graders. Fun times! 

Did the same when my kids were that age back in MA. Most (wet) fun we had in years. They still talk about it 15 years later.

[Polarbear]

See there was some snow a top pikes peak today.. was in Utah last week when they saw snow way up top.

[mayjawintastawm]

Will be interesting to see tomorrow morning- guessing based on temps down here in Denver there will be widespread snow above treeline. Typically the first real snow is around 9/7 (though it often all melts) so we are a little late but not much.

[Chinook]

Rainfall in the Denver area maxed out where there was a narrow area of thunderstorms across the north metro, maybe with hail.

Mayjawintastawm, so you are saying the first snow is in September? I would think you are thinking of October.

 

[smokeybandit]

I ended up with 0.85". Just south got probably double that, most of it from one cell.

[mayjawintastawm]

9 hours ago, Chinook said:

Rainfall in the Denver area maxed out where there was a narrow area of thunderstorms across the north metro, maybe with hail.

Mayjawintastawm, so you are saying the first snow is in September? I would think you are thinking of October.

 

Not here, but up on Mt Evans > 11K ft.. There was a poster who mentioned a dusting on Pikes Peak a few days ago.

[Chinook]

Summertime temps of 81-82 at Denver, 85 at Salt Lake City, Wyoming, and even Montana, with the mountains getting also summertime values with no clouds.

[smokeybandit]

I'm ready for winter, that's for sure.

[mayjawintastawm]

19 hours ago, Chinook said:

Summertime temps of 81-82 at Denver, 85 at Salt Lake City, Wyoming, and even Montana, with the mountains getting also summertime values with no clouds.

Remarkable for the end of Sept to see the mountains snow-free from a distance. Still mowing parts of the lawn (the shady ones) with some regularity. The few tomatoes we have are not in danger with no temps <40 F yet.

[Chinook]

some thunder at south Denver and south of Loveland tonight

[smokeybandit]

That was a nice little storm.  Even got a little hail. 

Now we can look ahead to first flurries of the year later this week.

[Chinook]

I think this is about 1"-2"

[smokeybandit]

Some of us outside the mountains may see our first snow of the year late week.

[Newman]

5 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

Some of us outside the mountains may see our first snow of the year late week.

Yeah, Cheyenne is sounding confident in snow levels dropping fairly low up here for Thursday. The Snowies should see 10+" though. Laramie should see some accumulation

[Chinook]

Today, back to 80 at Greeley and 80 at Denver, even 78 down by KAPA airport. This is quite typical as the strong upper level trough pulled away from the Plains and is sitting in the Great Lakes/Ontario. The 500mb height and surface temperatures always get much higher in response to the upper low moving east. An official high of 80 at KDEN is 12 degrees above the normal high. There's just a huge amount of above-normal temperatures along the Rocky Mountains going from Mexico all the way up to the Northwest Territories.

[Chinook]

I found some weather for ya.

Now there is a winter weather advisory for over 9000ft, with various winter weather products issued for over 7000ft in Wyoming. All of which might be translated to "huge winter storm" if it impacted any type of Midwest area.

[Newman]

First snow of the season here in Laramie. Coming down nicely with a coating on grass and cars. Still too warm for any stickage on roads. Some decent accums up in the Snowies

[smokeybandit]

Short term models have me getting at least some snow shower overnight. Hopefully there's evidence if it when I wake up

[Newman]

Ended up with about 1.5-2" on UW campus, most if not all of that coming this evening with the wrap around trowel. 

[ValpoVike]

I got a deck dusting overnight. Technically, first snow of the fall. 

[mayjawintastawm]

Dare we end this thread to create a cold season thread? I know, I just committed us to 3 months of +4 average temps and bone-dryness. What the heck.

[Chinook]

It's fine. You can't control the weather by starting a thread on a computer forum. El Nino is coming up. At some point in time you'll start looking for those California 500mb lows that become a snowstorm in Denver.