ValpoVike

I finished at 1.72” of liquid. Had periods of snow then rain and back again most of Tuesday and overnight. Here is a picture from my drive this morning heading into Estes.

I am now at 1.31" and is great moisture to start off May. As I thought, I have been right on the snow line with my neighbor above me with several inches. I got a slushy inch, and the neighbor 200 feet below me has only received rain. This happens nearly every spring and never ceases to amaze me. Regarding the wildfire season which was mentioned earlier today, I have found it to be much more coupled to the monsoon. There are years with good spring precipitation followed by a lackluster monsoon that result in a high danger mid-summer, and a good spring will get the fuels growing and then dry out if the monsoon fails. But a dry spring can be somewhat mitigated by a good monsoon. In 2020, both the spring and monsoon seasons were dry and we ended up with the Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires.

I have racked up 0.80" so far since the rain began on Monday, so not a major bust up here. Holding fairly warm at 40 degrees, so snow chances at my elevation are looking pretty low.

It might get real interesting around here and it could turn out to be a storm where I get very little slushy accumulation on Tuesday here at ~7300', while my neighbor who is 200' above me gets heavy cement worthy of plowing.

I have to fly to Germany on a business trip later this summer. Definitely planning to target this flight. Beats the heck out of the old 747’s that Lufthansa had been using for the route.

Yep, a bust.

Picked up 3" overnight, which was right in line with the forecast. Today is forecasted for another 1-3", with an additional 1-3" tonight. I am getting concerned about today's forecasted totals as the snow stopped an hour ago.

Love April and early May

Ended up at 5 inches of cement.

About 2 inches of snow up here, following the changeover that happened around 630pm. New WWA for 4-7 inches.

Yeah, very strong signals that the moisture will be there, but temps are tricky in April. For example, looking medium range at this weekend…both GFS and Euro have quite a lot of precip with aggressive QPF maxed in Larimer county. There is a very sharp gradient in snowfall amounts in both models, with 10 miles between 1.5’ and 1” of snowfall accumulation. Welcome to late March and April!

Maybe, and it is fantasyland, but ‘‘tis the season for big dumps. We can hope!

I am cautiously optimistic that this weekend into early next week will give us a good amount of moisture.

The Drought Monitor suggests that much of the area is doing ok.

I woke up to a surprise 4” snowfall this morning. I’ll take that any day.