Chinook

I have not posted for a while, since the weather has not done much here. In fact, it is possible that my area could be above normal for the month after having 42/32 on September 9th, which was very below average. I am sorry to hear that the fire is spreading toward Red Feather Lakes. That is a nice little place. This fire season has been awful. Edit: most of the trees in the neighborhood are still green, even though we had snow and 32 degrees. Several trees show some splotches of yellow leaves. The silver maple trees are a combination of green, yellow, and red, so I guess those ones are confused. A few trees have partially wilted leaves. NWS Boulder posted this on their web site:

A little bit off topic here-- but when somebody tells you that they expect the weatherman to be right all the time... (Tropical Depression 20)

I think I got 3-3.5" of snow on elevated surfaces, maybe 2.5" on the ground, 0.93+ on water equivalent. Some rain and drizzle occurred in a couple of time periods. There were some flakes even today.

I'm pretty sure I got something like 1.2" -1.3" on the ground. Fort Collins has a spotter report of 4.7". The rain gauge at Fort Collins-CSU is up to 0.96" since it started. I think my place might have gotten 0.6" water equivalent.

I think my place has 1". So far, I don't think any tree limbs will break. We are just getting out of a heavier band on radar-- there might not be so much left of this storm.

They didn't have a unique color for a 57 degree temp drop

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.