mayjawintastawm

I saw it quite dimly with binoculars only last night- but it was hazy and there was so much diffracted light from Denver that I could barely even make out the Big Dipper with the naked eye.

So far for my comet viewing, it's been smoky or cloudy up in the western sky the last 4 days in a row till after 11 PM. No letup in sight with afternoon and evening (mainly dry) convection. Thinking about driving up over the foothills to get a glimpse at some point.

Part of me hopes for rain in the evenings but more of me hopes for clear skies... starting today, the comet should be visible an hour or so after sunset low in the NW (for me, about halfway between Longs and Mt Evans), climbing a bit higher over the mountains for the next few days.

And we're only at about 63% of normal precip YTD here in Denver, though DEN airport got its first >0.1" in a while a couple hours ago.

Wow!! Can't wait till it's visible in the evening.

The duddiest since we arrived in 2010. It'll happen if you stick around long enough. Might come in September, who knows.

Would love to see that but I'm very skeptical. Dry has been generally winning out- anytime moisture threatens to increase it gets squashed.

There is a flash flood warning for my exact town. Apparently 1.5 inches of rain have fallen. I go outside and the ground is bone dry. Where’s the big umbrella in the sky?!? Grr, the past two weeks we should have had 1-2 inches and have had 0.02”.

this is a weird pattern. North of Denver is OK, Albuquerque and south is OK, in between is an absolutely cracking drought. Persistence!!

Would be nice. I was thinking this AM about how few thunderstorms and how little hail (I know I should not wish for hail!!) we've had so far in June. Should have planted the tomatoes earlier!

Have to say I'm quite done with this wind... broken branches on Sat, more broken branches on Sun, and still more last night. The rain was great, but 3 straight days of 50+ mph gusts (peak around 70 on Sat) is enough. If I were a tree, I'd pull up my roots and move. Come to think of it, a neighbor's healthy 45 foot spruce did just that during the derecho. (sorry, no pics because it was on top of their house)

Storms holding together as they come off the foothills this PM, with a bit of a Denver cyclone and DPs in the mid 40s. One SW of Castle Rock looks like it's starting to rotate. Anybody down there seeing anything off to the west? Could be some surprise hail down by Larkspur/Monument shortly. Tis the season! EDIT: Fizzling 20 minutes later.But one NE of there was briefly severe warned for hail.

Most places in the Front Range area getting around an inch of rain this afternoon and early evening, so welcome! Lots of places getting snow above 8000 feet, and accumulating in the mountain towns. I don't think I've seen snow falling outside of the high mountains on or after Memorial Day weekend since we moved here 10 years ago.

Actually felt good this AM with DPs in the low 50s. Now it's back to windy and nose-desiccating.

Inside and not at home, but will see how the yard looks later. EDIT: Dry. Less than 0.1" of rain since 4/23. EDIT 2: Finally broke the streak about 8:20 with just under 0.2" rain and a little hail to 0.6". Nice.

You get those nightly here between Memorial Day and late June. I don't know exactly why it is so much louder, maybe drier or less dense air transmits the sound better. One of my dogs absolutely hates it. We've been quite dry through all this- only 0.02" of rain in almost 2 weeks during what is one of the wetter parts of the year climatologically.

We have friends in the business who were updating us- delays, plus rain showers and low level turbulence, made for a less than ideal tour with a couple shortcuts toward the end. Still, they did what they could before they bugged out to Nellis. A 7 hour mission in a fighter with multiple midair refuelings makes for a tough day!

Yeah, down to 8 F one morning and 12 F another one last week, with others in the mid teens. Amazing sustained cold for this time of year. Unfortunately, spring is as gray as fall was after 10/12. All the blossoms on the trees, even those that were not really out yet, are dead. Maybe a few apple trees in shadier locations will recover, hopefully.

And edit: got 3" more this PM so 4" total on this storm, not a total bust after all. With the 4.2" the other day, that makes 11.0" for the month and 89.1" for the season. Pretty sure it's the snowiest "winter season" since we arrived in 2010. BTW, I heard that the majority of the peach crop in Palisade was lost this week. That REALLY stinks. Best produce in Colorado.

Good for you Chinook and ValpoVike! We are busting. Snow didn't begin till 6 AM and it snowed for 2+ hours accumulating 1 inch, then changed to freezing drizzle. What a difference a few miles makes!

It has to do with air pressure. Air moving from a higher to a lower elevation compresses, making the air warmer. Many times the difference is on the order of 5 degrees F per 1000 feet, which can create quite a difference- for example, if the Continental Divide averages around 12,000 feet in CO and the Plains are around 5000 feet, that's a 35 degree difference just from compression. There are of course other factors, but that's the basic reason. As to the part of your question about why it's warmer than the air that has been sitting around at a given elevation for a while, it has to do with cool air sinking. At night, if it isn't windy, cooler air will layer out. So if it's 20 F in Denver on a calm morning, then a westerly wind kicks up from the mountains, you get warmer, compressed air invading the cooler air. Many times the temp can go up 30 F in a couple hours with the combination of a Chinook wind and mixing the layers out. This time of year, you can get what we call "two-coat days": perhaps 18 F (winter coat) at 6 AM, 50 F (spring coat) at 9 AM, and 68 F (no coat) at 2 PM. Then again, you can get 8 F within a couple of days after 70 F (this happened Sat PM-Tues AM at Centennial Airport) when cold air rushes down the lee side of the mountains. Tough place to be a plant!!

2" at my place by 7 AM today- very fluffy. Couldn't be more than 0.1" WE total, probably more like 0.06". Hoping for more to moisten things up. Vegetation doesn't like to be freeze-dried.

Long as it doesn't get below 20 it should be fine... the buds are starting to come out and it would be nice to see flowers and fruit, especially this year. We've had too many 15 degree mornings in April the past few years.

2.8" new at our house, quite fluffy. Most fell at 18-21 degrees. Good thing the buds haven't quite popped yet.

1.5" overnight, for a March total of 12.9" and 78.1" on the season. Approaching a real winter!