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Mountain West Discussion- cool season '23-24


mayjawintastawm
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I have not been very active in this regional forum, but I assume reports from Pac NW and western Canada belong here and not in some separate regional thread? Anyway, I will try to post more often in hopes it might encourage others to post from PacNW from time to time

FYI, my location (Rossland BC, a ski and mountain biking, golf resort) is just north of border in central southern BC, about 150 miles north of Spokane WA and 50 miles north of Colville WA. I am close enough to border that we can drive into US within ten minutes of leaving town. Nearest regular reporting site is Castlegar BC (YCG) and we have a climate station at Warfield near Trail, BC. In the 2021 heat dome event we had 45 C (113F) here on June 30, 2021. I believe my all-time record low (from before I moved west) was around -30F in Jan 1950. It is semi-arid around the nearby Columbia valley but our local climate is wet enoug to sustain full forest cover which begins just below my elevation of 3500' asl and extends to near peak elevations in nearby monashee range, not as high as Selkirks or Rockies, peaks are around 7500' to 8000'. Trail in the Columbia valley is at 1500' asl. 

Anyway, recent weather in region has been clear and very cold, with just a bare inch of snow from last Wed-Thurs (2-3" on nearby higher ground). It was about 18F here last night and is now about 35F in shade, but feels milder in sunshine, temps on a slow rise now as cold sinks into plains states. 

Will post obs from around PacNW region in situations that are interesting this winter. I make frequent trips south so I am very familiar with regions of Great Basin and southern Utah into nw New mexico, n Arizona high desert. I was in Durango and Silverton CO and up that highway to Grand Junction and Dinosaur n.m. in 2018 and through some other parts of CO and WY in distant past but not as widely travelled there. Will be trying for an eclipse intercept in April 2024, saw 2017 event from Baker City, OR. Will be making a last minute decision on best viewing location, and probably an all-nite drive will be needed Apr 7-8 from w SD or se WY to see this one. 

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Today, temperatures in Colorado are like summer, but sunset at Fort Collins is at 4:52PM, considering the calculation expects a completely flat landscape. Here at my place in Ohio, sunset is at 5:23 Eastern. That feels different, as the solar noon time is pretty much a half hour later at all times. I think it's almost completely based off how the longitude lines up with your time zone. Keep checking the models for a light snow event later this week.

 

as per the usual.jpg

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On 11/5/2023 at 4:53 PM, Chinook said:

Today, temperatures in Colorado are like summer, but sunset at Fort Collins is at 4:52PM, considering the calculation expects a completely flat landscape. Here at my place in Ohio, sunset is at 5:23 Eastern. That feels different, as the solar noon time is pretty much a half hour later at all times. I think it's almost completely based off how the longitude lines up with your time zone. Keep checking the models for a light snow event later this week.

 

as per the usual.jpg

A while back when I was bored on a long drive between CO and OH (my daughter went to college near Cincinnati) it occurred to me that most time zones line up with longitude lines that are multiples of 15 degrees (duh, there are 24 time zones and GMT is aligned with 0). So Denver is about average for the Mountain Time zone at 105 degrees W, but Cincinnati is way west for the Eastern time zone at 84.5 W. Indiana is even stranger.

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  • 2 weeks later...
11 hours ago, Chinook said:

Winter storm warning for most of Larimer and Boulder Counties now, also note this was issued this afternoon, as you see this winter storm warning existed while it was 66-67 degrees

 

winter storm warning overlay with 66 degrees.jpg

This is looking to be a narrow event for the front range… Boulder-Longmont-FoCo.  I got my hopes up yesterday for 10-12” up here but that has been reduced significantly.  Interestingly, this is pretty much what the GFS has been showing for many days now, with most QPF in a narrow stripe at the base of the foothills.  Happy Thanksgiving!

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There are currently some storm reports of (just) 3" to 3.5" along I-25 with 5-6" at Cheyenne. I'm not sure if some final storm reports will show values a lot different than that. The radar was impressive early in the storm, that is, 0500z to 0700z. Fort Collins had the more impressive snow rates and/or low visibility at 0600z and for a few hours past that point. I seems as though Denver got decent snow rates.

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A very dry and relatively sunny November up by BC-WA border, in contrast to usual low cloud and mixed rain/snow sort of regime we expect. Quite cold also, GEG anomaly is +0.8F but I suspect we are closer to -2 or so. Not much snow yet even at higher elevations, cover ranges from trace amounts in valley to 1-2" in town to 4-6" alpine ski areas at around 5,000' nearby. Bears are not fully into hibernation and still looking for unlocked cars around town. Last few nights very cold, around 15 F. 

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The Northwest is getting kind of blitzed with heavy precipitation with westerly-flow-only. The Seattle and Portland areas will get much higher snowpack values in all mountain basins. They will have soggy and flooded valleys. Closer to Colorado: the local NWS offices are saying high winds above 6000 ft and also at Cheyenne vicinity.

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I don't check the model wind gusts forecasts a whole lot, since they are hard to find. I wonder if this particular HRRR will provide useful information for tomorrow. Wind gusts of 30+ knots with 65+ knots at about 9000 ft. The short-term forecast from the HRRR has 20kt to 65kt wind gusts over the mountains:huh:

HRRR winds2.jpg

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