ValpoVike

4 hours ago, mayjawintastawm said:

yeah- we got as low as -6, were below zero 3 mornings, and totaled a whopping 2.7" of snow. Today it finally got up to 31.

Sorry to hear that. From your reports, it sounds like a dreaded screw hole has cursed you this season.

2 hours ago, beavis1729 said:

Interesting that you think Chicago and NW IN have cold winters. 

My whole point was that their winters aren't nearly cold enough - and this is because you can't count on snow on the ground throughout most of DJF. You basically need average high temps in Jan to be 20-25F (and Dec & Feb with averages no warmer than 25-30F) in order to have a true wintry climate with consistent snow cover.  That way, when you do get the occasional mild pattern, you don't torch (meaning no days over 40F).

Not saying there needs to be 4 feet of snow on the ground...but a reliable 5-10+" would be nice during most of DJF.  You know - Currier and Ives scenes, White Christmas, frozen lakes, etc.

Unfortunately, Chicago's winter temps are about 10 degrees too warm for that. 

Also, I wouldn't say we have "long stretches of sub-zero cold".  Chicago only averages about 7 days each winter with low temps below zero.

Yes, I agree that it's all personal preference...but it just surprises me that people on a (mainly) winter weather forum seem to prefer mild/warm/hot weather over cold weather. It's frustrating for me personally because I hope to find kindred spirits on this forum...knowing that most of the general public hates winter.  

Man, I will say without any hesitation that it is indeed cold as hell in the Chicago area for my liking.  I will concede that it is not forever lasting like perhaps Minneapolis, but I remember very vividly about 12 years ago when it was -30 one morning in Valpo and the entire week wasn't much better.  About 9 years ago I recall -23 and many burst pipes in a region that actually designs homes to withstand frosted pipes.  That is crazy cold, and I even did the "throw the boiling water into the air" trick with my kids

I personally like both snow season and summer.  Note that I didn't say winter because up where I live, we can get 3' or greater snowfall in mid-May and the next day hit 70 degrees.  Gotta love that!  But my personal favorite is Monsoon season and watching lightning filled anvils form over the plains.  It is an amazing sight from the perspective of my elevation.

Regarding Currier and Ives, we kind of have that.  However, it is highly subject to where your house is situated.  My house is on a south facing slope and snow melts very quickly due to the sun.  But literally my actual neighbor, 300' below me, is on the river and shaded by a mountain and he has had constant snow cover on his property since mid-December.  Even with temps around 50 it doesn't melt much until the sun hits it.  He'll be back in the sun sometime in March.

23 minutes ago, beavis1729 said:

For a winter lover (not just individual storms, but the tenor of the season) living in areas with more plentiful job prospects, it’s difficult and sad to accept. I like seasons in seasons - we can always count on July and August (at a minimum) to be summerlike, but we can’t count on any dates in winter to be winter-like. And highs in the 30s and 40s with bare ground isn’t winter, no matter what some believe. 

Well, Colorado isn't Chicago and our winters feature snow with cold (but reasonable) temperatures.  It's what you're used to and of course a matter of personal preference.  I left NW Indiana 7 years ago and never looked back, largely due to the long stretches of sub-zero cold and the relentless cloud cover.  But I digress.

Yeah looks good...and it's right on track with March around the corner. 

12 hours ago, Chinook said:

We should get some snow with the arctic air mass on Monday night to possibly Tuesday, and then another, perhaps separate storm on Wednesday.

I hope so.  Last week I thought the 3" limit would finally be breached up here...I ended up with 2".  This looks a tad more promising.

I did read yesterday in the Denver Post that Denver has had it's snowiest start on record since the New Year.  Can this really be true?

I may finally break the streak of 3" snows.  Jinxed it, I'm sure.

My assumption has been that out further west they had a really good early season with some huge storms.  Would be interesting to see the seasonal data, as I predict that it may be opposite....out west looking ok, but along the front range we would be pretty far behind.

Only about 4" up here.  We have seen quite a few 3"-4" snows here this season, but yet to see a true dump.

13 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

GFS is now pretty meh on the storm next week for NE CO.

It is trending up again. NWS Boulder also had a nice write up in this morning’s AFD on the case for high snow ratios. 

16 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

NWS pretty bullish

 

 

 I kind of doubt the northern amounts, but the models are all pretty close on a decent hit for foothills and palmer.

Wow, it is really slick out there.  At least it is up here, but I am also reading that areas adjacent to the foothills have a coating.

47 minutes ago, mayjawintastawm said:

Amazing how a tiny difference in trajectory creates such different outcomes for the major EC cities. But the majority seem to track the heavy snow inland. I remember 12/5/03 well, had a 6 yo and a 4 yo kid and we built a VERY large snow fort once I was able to get home from work.

I don't know about you, but my best memories as a kid (and later with my kids) mostly involve big snow events.

Exactly my thoughts last night looking at radar.  The presentation reminded me of my years in Geauga county Ohio and the lake effect bands.  However, the banding gods did not smile upon us here, with a meager 3".  I'll take it though.  Hopefully the areas east of the foothills got more as they need it much, much more....

22 minutes ago, Chinook said:

Now upper and lower Larimer County have winter storm warnings, possibly for different reasons. I think the reason for the W.S.W. for lower Larimer County is higher winds, which is kind of surprising since it isn't windy yet. It isn't snowy yet, either.

18z NAM ramped up the snow for Fort Collins, now over 8".  A pretty sizeable increase over the 12z run.  Cheyenne get's buried.  

Larimer foothills look to be in a snow hole, wedged between good amounts in both the mountains and the flatlands.

16 hours ago, Chinook said:

It looks like there is a chance of snow for northern Colorado on Wednesday. It will be with a WNW flow aloft. It could perhaps favor Cheyenne and western Nebraska. It's kind of one of those wait-and-see situations.

edit: 00z GFS is kind of nuts for Cheyenne to Fort Collins, hmm, 0.52" of preciptation and 11.7" of snow... 22.5:1 snow ratio. sounds high.

12z doubled down on the nuttiness.  QPF is now up to 0.7" in the Ft Collins to Cheyenne area....and now showing over 16" snow for Ft Collins, so it is staying with it's very high ratios.  Meanwhile the Euro only shows 0.3" QPF.

Radar is filling in nicely as the upslope kicks in. Definitely feels like a solid snow setting up as banding is also evident and started a few hours ago with the band that roughly set up from Boulder to Greeley.

I hope I don't jinx it, but some impressive accumulations on the models and the NWS forecasts for areas west of I25.  Including the snow-cursed city of Ft Collins.

On 12/23/2021 at 8:00 PM, raindancewx said:

I'd keep your eyes on the end of the month for something. Huge SOI crash around 12/20 and also a very powerful Kamchatka low / rex block on 12/13 both point to some fun and games around 12/30-1/3. There is already a pretty decent signal for something around 12/30 on the models now.

Both the GFS and Euro agree with you.

As of this morning I am sitting at 15.59" for the year. The closest climo data to me is Estes Park which shows around 14" annual average precip.  Not too bad...but we did have a good monsoon up here this year, followed by a very dry fall. It is remarkable just how different a situation it is just a few miles to the east.

Yesterday my home was a frustrating 200' below the snow line.  This morning we awoke to a surprise 1.5". We are calling it the meteorological miracle 

Something really strange is in the air today.  There are tiny moist particles falling from the sky...I actually had to turn on my windshield wipers to push it aside. 

12 hours ago, Chinook said:

Fort Collins and Loveland today were up to 53-60 degrees, with 61-65 at Longmont. If you look closely at the average temperatures, the days of Dec 20-21 is on average the coldest in our area. Apparently, the lowest amount of sunlight directly correlates to the lowest climate-average temperature. So were were about 13 degrees above average for the high temp, given a value of 56 vs 43. In the East, where I used to live, the lowest average daily temperature was on Jan 19 or Jan 20th, as colder air is always kind of hanging around many days after the Winter Solstice.

That's really quite interesting.  Up here in the Larimer foothills, there seems to be a real lack of climatological data however my experience over the past 8 years is that mid to late January is typically the coldest.  This is very similar to what I experienced in my years of living in Ohio and Indiana.  I wonder if there is something inherently different (altitude, LOL) in the short distance between Loveland and 7k+ feet up...or if the past 8 years have generally been anomalous up here.  Not the first or last time that I wish there was good climate data up here.

LOL I spoke too soon and clocked 87MPH at 3:25pm.  There is a nice Davis station a bit further up in the neighborhood that hit 93MPH around the same time.  Pretty intense.

I recorded a 68MPH gust up here at 11:08am.  So far (and thankfully) a rather run of the mill winter wind event up in this part of the foothills.  I think it is perhaps a bit different story from Boulder and points south, like Bailey and Evergreen areas.  It would be interesting to see more reports from down in that area.

About an inch up here so far this evening.  It's crazy to be excited about that, but here we are.