Mountain West Discussion

[ValpoVike]

Tomorrow/Friday looks more concerning from a fire weather perspective than Wed, with lower RHs than the previous wind event, higher gust forecasts, and a much larger areal coverage of RFWs.

[ValpoVike]

The RFW now has a PDS attached to it. I don’t know if that has ever been done around here. 

[mayjawintastawm]

3 hours ago, ValpoVike said:

The RFW now has a PDS attached to it. I don’t know if that has ever been done around here. 

I've never seen one, anyplace, ever. Anyone else?

[smokeybandit]

The wx twitter accounts I follow have said they've never heard of one in CO before.

[Chinook]

Some more very high winds of 60-110 mph in Boulder

[smokeybandit]

There were still some real nasty localized winds, but thankfully this one doesn't seem to be as widespread as the Wednesday one.

[smokeybandit]

I flew out of DEN early this morning expecting a rough go. It was smoother than usual.

[Chinook]

Mt. Washburn view from Yellowstone NP. This particular webcam is mostly in the clouds these days, even with the general lack of snow. The other web cams show some non-snowy ground at the entrances to the park

 

North Entrance- Electric peak

 

 

[tacoman25]

18 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

There were still some real nasty localized winds, but thankfully this one doesn't seem to be as widespread as the Wednesday one.

Yeah, I saw a big dust cloud towards Boulder driving up to Thornton on 25 yesterday, but winds throughout most the metro area were pretty weak.

[ValpoVike]

I had a 50’ section of buck and rail fencing that was lifted, moved about 10’, and broken. This particular type of fencing is wide open and not prone to catching the wind. Based on the damage I estimate a 100mph+ gust. The odd thing is that it is only 70’ from my PWS which only logged a max of 56mph and is quite accurate. These gusts must have been extremely narrow and localized. 
 

[tacoman25]

Looks like DEN hit 75 today, tying their all-time December high from 1980. The December record for Denver comes from the old city station in 1939, with an absurd temp of 79.

So sick of this pattern we're stuck in, and it's awful for the mountains/ski season/tourism/etc. And still no sign of meaningful change 10-14 days down the road.

[mayjawintastawm]

DEN is now +11.2 degrees on the month, with just over a week left. Wow. #1 warmest December was in 1933, and we're closing in on that. It's notable that that year's December was over 3 degrees warmer than the existing record at the time. I don't know much about historical climatology in the area, other than the Dust Bowl followed from 1934-36 (yikes) and some measurements were unreliable. Anyone with more insight?

[tacoman25]

Finally something to track!

[smokeybandit]

58 degrees on Christmas morning. Disgusting

[mayjawintastawm]

All day I couldn't stop thinking "Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say..." as I wore shorts to the dog park.

[tacoman25]

All models showing around 2-3" for most the metro Sat night. We might somehow finish this craptastic month with a respectable amount of snowfall.

[tacoman25]

Oof, bad trend the past 24 hours. Half the models now show Denver getting skunked. Some still show 1-2". 

[mayjawintastawm]

8 hours ago, tacoman25 said:

Oof, bad trend the past 24 hours. Half the models now show Denver getting skunked. Some still show 1-2". 

Seems like if you bet on the driest model you can find 24 hours out from any given precip event, you'll do well 4 out of 5 times. Hopefully it will at least get cold, so my neighbor across the street who started a new lawn in September doesn't have to mow it on New Year's Eve.

[smokeybandit]

Managed to get maybe 3/4" out of that. Sadly, 2nd highest total of the season.

[mayjawintastawm]

1.0" here. Nice and cold, pretty morning, roads awful as they should be.

[tacoman25]

Yeah, about 3/4" here as well. 

[ValpoVike]

Just drove in from DIA and roads were clear. There is a very sharp cutoff along I25 near Longmont where there was no snow unfortunately. 

[mayjawintastawm]

So, climate… OND this year at DEN had a total of 0.53” of liquid and Dec is the second warmest since 1872. I still wonder about the validity of the #1 in 1933 as it was so much higher than any up to that point. Happy new year!

[tacoman25]

13 hours ago, mayjawintastawm said:

So, climate… OND this year at DEN had a total of 0.53” of liquid and Dec is the second warmest since 1872. I still wonder about the validity of the #1 in 1933 as it was so much higher than any up to that point. Happy new year!

Just a brutal fall and early winter. Looks like only 2021 was drier in both the airport and long term city records for OND. The pattern persistence has been unreal.

It wasn't the second warmest December in Denver records, though. Both 1933 and 1957 were warmer in the city station records. But it was the warmest for the airport stations.

1933 was legit, it's backed up by plenty of other temp records throughout the region and the West that year.