Chinook

yes, it's real. It's a long range forecast that's been somewhat consistent with the GFS and ECMWF the last couple of days, I think

Models/ensembles have Colorado down near 0 degrees on Dec 1st.

at 46.12% drought, it's the most since 49.84% drought one year ago (almost exactly) Blame La Nina or something smarter than that.

this would be pretty amazing in person. some snow showers in the mountains

The ridge finally broke down and it snowed mainly west of the Continental Divide today. This has been a huge reason why it wasn't snowy

lenticulars

remains of a once-bright burning bush

The West Coast low pressure area has already brought 1.25"-5.0" to San Francisco, 3.0" (3.0 feet?) to the Sierra Nevadas, and 0.3" to Los Angeles. There's much more to come for southern California and the desert. It's kicking the ridge in the middle of the country. Today, Fort Collins was back to 70-75, 75 in Denver, and over 80 in Kansas.

Fort Collins up to 75.1 I wish I could turn on the weather magnets and get you guys some rain and snow. My place in Ohio had more snow than Estes Park this week. It wasn't much.

looks like a miniature cyclone

another view

I was testing out some color palettes for Radarscope. This clear-air color palette makes it look super cool by South Bend

The changeover from rain to snow produced some heavier snowfall rates here in Toledo. I believe my place got over 2" before 10:00, and we still have snowflakes and 35 degrees.

Fort Collins was 81 in Nov. 2006 (The first year I was there) and 79 just the other day, and also 79 in Nov. 2016.

a bit of a side note on weather. Louisville airport reported smoke after the plane crash