Chinook

I've got decent sized flakes. Maybe I could get 1" sometime after sunset, as surfaces cool down a bit.

It seems like that batch of snow is just over to the west. I guess it could surprise people at 5:00PM, but hopefully this snow has made enough headlines that people pay attention.

Snowfall and gusty winds are being reported in most of Wyoming right now.

Today, the Cameron Peak Fire is up to 59000 acres, up from 21000 acres a couple of weeks ago, when most of the smoke went away. I think. The large smoke plume is going directly east over Fort Collins. In Loveland, we are at about 70 degrees with some orange-ish sunshine.

WPC precipitation day 1-5

Similar type of colors here- brownish clouds, sun looks red. You could almost stare at the sun, but still not recommended. At 5:00 or 6:00, it was as dark as a thunderstorm, with reddish horizon. I could post a picture, but I don't want to. my first GFS mega-snow post. I sincerely hope that there aren't too many trees broken, but it looks quite concerning. Like picking up tree branches after an ice storm.

Winter and freeze watches only

The surface smoke has come back - it smells more like campfire smoke than any day since the worst days of the High Park Fire.

Yes, some bits of ash and 1/4 or 1/2" burnt pine needles fell from the sky for some time period last night. Today, that pyrocumulus is gone, but I guess it could come back. It looks like this month could be filled with things I've never seen before. This is from yesterday.

Ash is falling from the sky.

Just in the last few hours, it went from being mostly sunny with slight haze in the mountains, to having a new plume from the Cameron Peak fire, or some new fire near that area. This new pyrocumulus is making the sun look red right now. I would suppose the snow will put that one out. California, however, should not have any precipitation to help get rid of this massive smoke plume near the national parks of the Sierras

Did Haishen achieve Category 5 status (137 kt or higher)? I'm so intrigued that the US Gulf faced a double storm threat, now, southern Japan to Korea is certainly facing a double large storm threat just 1 week later, or roughly one week.

I think the models are coming into agreement with general QPF/ snow amounts on Tuesday. I have never seen snow fall in September. In lower elevation areas of CO and the Midwest, I've only seen snow in October through May. I have had some snowflakes when I've been hiking in August, and maybe June. I can't remember if I've seen snowflakes at 13000-14000 ft in June or July. I once saw new snow on Mt. Bierstadt in September.

I guess we have a chance of snow next week, after the 90s to 100 degrees. That's nuts.

Areas that were +4 to +6 for August probably were in record heat territory.

Western states drought statistics... so sad.

Denver had the hottest August in history, tied with August 2011 (77.0 degrees). Phoenix, and Las Vegas had the hottest August in history. Yuma AZ had the 2nd hottest August in history. Tucson had the hottest August, which was also the hottest single month in history with an average of 92.0 degrees. Grand Junction CO had the hottest August in history.

24-hr radar- based rain totals for Ohio

This week's rains were below the values predicted by NWS-WPC about a a week ago. Nevertheless, I'm sure it provided some minor help to fighting wildfires. My place got 0.05" last night and a trace on August 26th. Yesterday's rain was the only measurable rain here since August 4th. Smoke and haze have been declining. GEFS ensemble means have cool or normal temperatures for 1 week or more. edit: my place is getting rain for the 2nd straight day. It may go through pretty quickly though. I had something of a shelf cloud type thing before this one. Maybe some 25-30mph wind gusts. Such excitement. Edit: Las Vegas has been over 100 degrees every day this month.

This image of TS Laura kind of looks like a skull, remarkably, a similar thing happened with Hurricane Matthew

I'm not sure this recon data is exactly the same data as the Vortex data message posted above-- this looks like it has some 64 kt + winds aloft. TS Marco looks like the Orion Nebula with this current burst of convection

Model-based view of smoke. The model breaks up the forecast into different layers and also vertically integrated smoke. This evening, I saw a 4-propeller plane going overhead. I think it was a water tanker for the fires, because it wasn't an old WWII plane. Today, the sky looked weird all day. I smelled smoke in the morning, but not in the afternoon or evening. It was hot. I went out at 5:45, and it must not have been too crazy hot at that time. Visibility the mountains was just 5-10 miles. Good news- the GFS and NWS-WPC show some rain for Colorado next week, both before and after the cold front that should be here on Thursday.

With the low-angle sunshine over the extensive smoke, it looks like a sandstorm has hit the country

Today, I think some smoke came in from California in the upper atmosphere, and my area may have had some (smellable?) smoke from the Cameron Peak fire. My visibility toward the mountains was possibly 10 miles in the evening today, and maybe a little better yesterday. Overall, definitely more noticeable smoke/haze towards the mountains on these days (Thursday/Friday) than the other days. Yesterday, I had brief thunderstorms to my north and south at different times-- saw about 3 lightning bolts.

I got 95.5 degrees when I put my thermometer outdoors today, but these mesonet stations got 98-99 in Loveland. Here's the temps from my area. Denver had a record high of 100 degrees. I expect the smoke and bad air quality to come back to me, with so many fires nearby. For right now, the NW flow aloft may take the smoke away from my area, like today.