Mountain West Discussion

[mayjawintastawm]

Downtown Denver/Cherry Creek area got about 1"-1.5" per hour this evening while we were there, guessing about 8-9" so far from looking at the cars. Much less here about 7 miles away, around 4.5". Still snowing hard. Gorgeous. First storm this winter that was not wind-driven. If it were December not April, worthy of a postcard!

[Chinook]

I think I got 10.5" to 11.5" and it compacted to 8" to 9.5". It is continuing to snow and we should get more tonight and Wednesday.

[CO SciFan]

At our place in central Fort Collins, CO we look to have around 12.5" of compacted snow this morning, here's a short album showing off the nice total:  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10201076723222901.1073741826.1313036820&type=1&l=d27d0df7a4

[tacoman25]

Ended up with 14" here in Westminster. Biggest storm of the season. Maybe another 2-4" tomorrow?

[Chinook]

I might have a snow depth of 14" now. I will have to check it.

[tacoman25]

DEN has now recorded 51.2" since Feb 1. With more likely on the way, this is already the second snowiest Feb-Apr on record, after 1959 (which had 61.9").

[CO SciFan]

Even though the porch table measure shows 12.5", I bet we easily got 14" if measured in a better location.

[Chinook]

I think I got 14-16" storm total so far. My snow depth is a bit over 12".

[CO SciFan]

Channel 7 weather just reported a bit over 18" for Fort Collins, wow!  Trying to remember if anything last year compares, but this is certainly by far our biggest snow this winter.

[Chinook]

The last major one we got was October 27-29 2009.

[tacoman25]

I think I got 14-16" storm total so far. My snow depth is a bit over 12".

 

If you are still measuring a depth of 12", I'm sure you're right about your storm total.

My 14" has settled/compacted to about 10-11" in most spots.

[tacoman25]

Channel 7 weather just reported a bit over 18" for Fort Collins, wow!  Trying to remember if anything last year compares, but this is certainly by far our biggest snow this winter.

 

I had a three day storm total of 22" in February 2012. DEN got about 16" with that one. This was easily the biggest storm for me since then.

[tacoman25]

The latest EURO, Canadian and NAM runs all come in further south with the low tomorrow, and consequently show more snow for the Front Range - probably 3-6"+ (upwards of 8" in spots if the Euro/Canadian are correct). More for the foothills.

[boulderrr]

The latest EURO, Canadian and NAM runs all come in further south with the low tomorrow, and consequently show more snow for the Front Range - probably 3-6"+ (upwards of 8" in spots if the Euro/Canadian are correct). More for the foothills.

 

 

Music to my ears!  

[Chinook]

The next round of snow is starting-- for me. We got a dusting so far.

[Chinook]

Blizzard watch for counties around I-76. 

[Met1985]

Blizzard watch for counties around I-76. 

Sweet! Can you post some pics?

[Chinook]

I went on a walk at nighttime:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Met1985]

I went on a walk at nighttime:

 

DSCN0637_6402.jpg

 

DSCN0639_640.jpg

Beautiful!

[famartin]

I don't believe this is correct. The records I see from the WRCC show the previous coldest record low after 4/8 being 7 in 1959: http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?co2220

 

Therefore, the low of 6 was DEN's coldest temperature on record so late in the season. The high of 12 Cheyenne saw was also their coldest high this late in the season. Pretty remarkable.

You could be right...but I pulled my data from the following, which shows a low of 6F on 4/12/1997:

 

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/bou/include/showProduct.php?product=aprn.txt&parentdir=cli

Huh. Well I would trust the local NWS records over the regional climate center, so you're probably right. Weird that there is that discrepancy.

 

 

The issue is the data site.  DIA was 6F on 4/12/1997.  However, Station 052220 listed on the wrcc link is Stapleton, where records are still kept.  It was only 8 there on 4/12/1997.

[N. OF PIKE]

Awesome fluffy snow pics chinook

[boulderrr]

Some BIG ol' flakes falling here in Boulder now! 

[tacoman25]

The issue is the data site.  DIA was 6F on 4/12/1997.  However, Station 052220 listed on the wrcc link is Stapleton, where records are still kept.  It was only 8 there on 4/12/1997.

 

Thanks for clearing that up. I know that was right around the time they started keeping records at DIA, so it makes sense.

[famartin]

Thanks for clearing that up. I know that was right around the time they started keeping records at DIA, so it makes sense.

DIA opened (with associated data collection) in Feb March 1995.

[famartin]

BTW, found that they started taking snowfall observations at DIA (versus just Stapleton) sometime in 2007.  Here's an interesting comparison:

Stapleton vs. DIA        Jan       Feb       Mar       Apr       May       Jun       Jul       Aug       Sep       Oct       Nov       Dec        Ann2008  3.1/1.9   5.1/5.1   5.4/4.5   2.9/2.9   1.0/3.4     0/T       0/T       0/T       0/0       0/T     3.2/1.7   7.1/10.3  27.8/29.82009  2.8/4.9   0.8/T     6.7/13.8  5.5/7.4     M/0       0/T       0/0       0/T       0/0     9.0/17.2  6.6/9.3   6.8/11.1  38.2/63.72010  0.9/2.6   7.4/5.8  11.6/12.8  1.5/0.5   2.0/1.3     0/T       0/T       0/0       0/0       0/0     3.4/1.5   2.0/3.3   28.8/27.82011  6.6/8.0   9.0/5.3   1.8/2.5   1.8/1.2     T/1.0     0/T       0/T       0/0       0/0     5.0/8.5   4.3/4.5  16.0/16.5  44.5/47.52012  3.2/4.9  18.3/20.2    T/T     3.1/1.0     0/T       0/T       0/0       0/0       0/T     7.4/5.5   1.1/1.7   2.5/5.2   35.6/38.52013  2.5/4.6  10.2/14.1                                                                                                      12.7/18.7

[CO SciFan]

We are getting some nice heavy snowfall again in Fort Collins, what a great spring for snow!

[tacoman25]

DIA opened (with associated data collection) in Feb March 1995.

 

Right, but it was still within a couple years of when it opened. And the transition to official records for everything being kept there has been slow, as you alluded in the post above.

[Chinook]

Lots of snow is falling in Fort Collins. Visibility is about 500 ft (again.) I think we have gotten 17-20" total at my house. I cleared about 3 or 4" off my car this morning.

[CO SciFan]

I just noticed this on the NWS Weather Story page for today,  http://www.crh.noaa.gov/wxstory.php?site=bou

 

Confidence is increasing for another system Monday into Tuesday
that will bring another round of cold temperatures and snow to the
forecast area.

 

[tacoman25]

 

BTW, found that they started taking snowfall observations at DIA (versus just Stapleton) sometime in 2007.  Here's an interesting comparison:

Stapleton vs. DIA        Jan       Feb       Mar       Apr       May       Jun       Jul       Aug       Sep       Oct       Nov       Dec        Ann2008  3.1/1.9   5.1/5.1   5.4/4.5   2.9/2.9   1.0/3.4     0/T       0/T       0/T       0/0       0/T     3.2/1.7   7.1/10.3  27.8/29.82009  2.8/4.9   0.8/T     6.7/13.8  5.5/7.4     M/0       0/T       0/0       0/T       0/0     9.0/17.2  6.6/9.3   6.8/11.1  38.2/63.72010  0.9/2.6   7.4/5.8  11.6/12.8  1.5/0.5   2.0/1.3     0/T       0/T       0/0       0/0       0/0     3.4/1.5   2.0/3.3   28.8/27.82011  6.6/8.0   9.0/5.3   1.8/2.5   1.8/1.2     T/1.0     0/T       0/T       0/0       0/0     5.0/8.5   4.3/4.5  16.0/16.5  44.5/47.52012  3.2/4.9  18.3/20.2    T/T     3.1/1.0     0/T       0/T       0/0       0/0       0/T     7.4/5.5   1.1/1.7   2.5/5.2   35.6/38.52013  2.5/4.6  10.2/14.1                                                                                                      12.7/18.7

 

It's odd how poorly both stations have done for snowfall the past 6 years or so, compared to most the area. Boulder saw it's snowiest season on record in 2009-10, with 134.5"...they also had above normal snowfall in 2011-12 and 2008-09. Longterm, Boulder averages 20" more a season than Denver.

 

I live about halfway between Boulder and Stapleton, and I've averaged about 20"/season more than the airports in that same time frame.