Mountain West Discussion

[Front Ranger]

After a November that was +6.8 at DEN, December is running -7.4.

[Guest happ]

After a November that was +6.8 at DEN, December is running -7.4.

 

Those departures are true for much of the Western U.S.

[Black Hole]

SLC is running above average for December still! But hopefully that will change with all of the cold weather that will be occurring the next two weeks. 

[Front Ranger]

Insanely windy Christmas Day here. Reports of gusts 100+ by the foothills, scattered power outages. The Broomfield airport, which is about 5 miles from me, has seen sustained winds in the 50-60 mph range all afternoon, with a peak gust of 83 mph.

[Black Hole]

Big snowstorm for me with 13"! Even the valley did well with 11.5" in West Valley City at my grandmas house. 

[Front Ranger]

Big snowstorm for me with 13"! Even the valley did well with 11.5" in West Valley City at my grandmas house.

Nice!

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Big snowstorm for me with 13"! Even the valley did well with 11.5" in West Valley City at my grandmas house.

Wow impressive storm!

[Black Hole]

Wow impressive storm!

Christmas 1916 was just a touch snowier, so snowiest christmas in 100 years

[Black Hole]

Some serious arctic air will likely impact the Rockies next week. I think there is some question about how far south the really cold air goes, but we will all be well below normal and likely see some snow. 

 

SLC record is -30F and we haven't been below -3F in 26 years...its about time to see some real cold weather.

[Black Hole]

Todays runs aren't making things any clearer with model swings and uncertainty remaining. Trend is bad overall but not so bad that I am worried about getting cold...but perhaps we will not break the -3F barrier that has held for so long. 

[Black Hole]

Still large model disagreement. ECMWF showing a foot of snow on Wednesday so that would be nice to see. 

[Black Hole]

Another 5" fell last night. I was expecting maybe 2" so it was a nice surprise. 

Possible 1-2" tomorrow and then 6-12" on Wed-Thurs. Should have a pretty impressive snowpack at that point.  

[Guest happ]

Another 5" fell last night. I was expecting maybe 2" so it was a nice surprise. 

 

Possible 1-2" tomorrow and then 6-12" on Wed-Thurs. Should have a pretty impressive snowpack at that point.  

 

Fantastic. Snowfall this week may be quite significant from the Pacific to Rockies!

[Black Hole]

Fantastic. Snowfall this week may be quite significant from the Pacific to Rockies!

Yeah the entire west is doing well now it seems! Looks like an atmospheric river for you guys in Cali will be setting up. Sierra mtns will do quite well. Even with the leftovers the mtns here will also see a lot of snow with that. 

[Front Ranger]

Another 5" fell last night. I was expecting maybe 2" so it was a nice surprise. 

 

Possible 1-2" tomorrow and then 6-12" on Wed-Thurs. Should have a pretty impressive snowpack at that point.  

 

Wow, very nice. Just patches in the shade left here.

 

As expected, it's been a colder and drier than normal winter here so far. December was -2.2 at DEN, but I've only had about 13" of snow so far. Average snowfall to this point is around 22".

[Front Ranger]

GFS gives me 6-8" total snow by Friday. Going to be a cold week, with temps probably not rising above 25 until Saturday.

[Black Hole]

Wow, very nice. Just patches in the shade left here.

 

As expected, it's been a colder and drier than normal winter here so far. December was -2.2 at DEN, but I've only had about 13" of snow so far. Average snowfall to this point is around 22".

I haven't measured yet, but it looks like about 2" of new snow. Hard to tell with so much on the ground already.

 

WSW for 6-12"+ for Tues night into Thursday afternoon. Doesn't look super heavy but its a long duration event so I think I may see 12-18" out of this. 

[Black Hole]

I ended up with 2.4", but some places to the south got like 10". 

 

[epiceast]

Snowing here, a dusting on cars. No idea what is forcing this, partly cloudy skies some low level fog. Radar shows nothing.

[Black Hole]

Snowing here, a dusting on cars. No idea what is forcing this, partly cloudy skies some low level fog. Radar shows nothing.

I see that happen sometimes. Sometimes it comes from the fog. Usually you have high low level RH and just a touch of lift. 

[Front Ranger]

NWS thinking 5-10" here tomorrow through Thursday.

[Scott]

We have been getting buried in snow.   We have a few feet of snow so far and here is our weather forecast:

 

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=40.516947536100986&lon=-107.55189507739516#.WG0Mr1MrLIU

 

 

 

Today: Snow. Widespread blowing snow, mainly before 4pm. Widespread fog, mainly after noon. High near 29. West southwest wind 5 to 10 mph increasing to 10 to 15 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 4 to 6 inches possible.

Tonight: Snow. Patchy blowing snow before 2am. Areas of fog. Low around -1. West wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible.

Thursday: Snow. High near 8. Wind chill values as low as -15. West northwest wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. 

Thursday Night: A 40 percent chance of snow, mainly before 11pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around -18. Wind chill values as low as -30. North wind around 5 mph becoming east northeast after midnight.

Friday: Mostly sunny and cold, with a high near 8. East southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the afternoon.

Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around -14.

 

_____________________________________

 

And sadly, that's actually not even cold for us.

[Black Hole]

A dud here so far, but should see some snow later today. Maybe more like 1-4" since the warm front went too far north. Oh well. There will be other storms. 

[Guest happ]

Snow levels are climbing in warmer Pacific storms out here but still getting dumped at Mammoth. Will this advect into the Rockies?  

[Front Ranger]

2" so far in Boulder. Heavier stuff should hit in a few hours.

[Front Ranger]

Ended up with about 7". Currently 6 degrees. 

 

Tonight will be very cold...depending on when it clears out, wouldn't surprise me to see some lows in the -15 or so range.

[Guest happ]

Looks like warmer Pacific air reaches Colorado on Sunday

[Black Hole]

Snow was very intense yesterday evening, I got 7.7" with that. Lots of deep snow everywhere now. Assuming we clear out we will also be very cold tonight, but probably more like 0. 

Big warm up in a few days with the atmospheric river event. 

[Scott]

I estimate we had about 30" of snow at my house.   Now that it's clearing, it's supposed to get colder.   It's a not that bad yet -10F right now, but it's forecasted to be -28F by morning.

 

http://images.summitpost.org/original/991298.jpg

 

Usually when the forecast says -28F though, it's in the -30's.   Windchills are predicted to be in the -40's and -50's.

[Scott]

I have -40 at the house, but downtown it's a warmer -34 right now:

 

[Scott]

Even after sunrise, the temperature is still dropping.  Now I have -43 at the house, but downtown is -37:

 

[Guest happ]

Even after sunrise, the temperature is still dropping.  Now I have -43 at the house, but downtown is -37:

 

 

That's amazing!

[Black Hole]

Scott you live in a crazy place!

SLC airport was -5F this morning, it hasn't been colder since Dec 1990! I only hit 4F at my place, but with the canyon winds its never as cold. 

Looking ahead we have a storm moving in Sunday. Probably some snow to rain with that. 

[Guest happ]

Scott you live in a crazy place!

 

SLC airport was -5F this morning, it hasn't been colder since Dec 1990! I only hit 4F at my place, but with the canyon winds its never as cold. 

 

Looking ahead we have a storm moving in Sunday. Probably some snow to rain with that. 

 

Any records?

[Scott]

SLC airport was -5F this morning, it hasn't been colder since Dec 1990! 

 

 

If you are interested, the SLC airport did hit -12 on 2/3/1996, but it hasn't approached that figure since then.  The 1996 cold snap was really short though, so isn't as impressive as the December 1990 one.

[Front Ranger]

Didn't get as cold as I thought it would last night. "Only" -7 at DEN, and -4 in my backyard. Third coldest low of the winter.

[BLI snowman]

Boise has already set an all time record snow depth of 15" at their airport and they're expecting 3-4" more on top of it before they warm up.

[Front Ranger]

Boise has already set an all time record snow depth of 15" at their airport and they're expecting 3-4" more on top of it before they warm up.

 

Wow.

 

As I said a few days ago, winter 2016-17 has slowly been building a very solid resume. 

[Scott]

The forecast actually uses the words "Todays is forecast to be MUCH WARMER than yesterday". I guess that they are right. It's a warmer -28F right now and by afternoon it may get close to 0.

 

[Black Hole]

If you are interested, the SLC airport did hit -12 on 2/3/1996, but it hasn't approached that figure since then.  The 1996 cold snap was really short though, so isn't as impressive as the December 1990 one.

I wasn't aware of that one. 

 

Well, it did hit -6F this morning. So an impressive cold stretch to be sure.