mlgamer

You guys that post the great snow maps (especially the Euro)...if you can get down to I-70 in NE KS without too much trouble I would appreciate it.  I get cut off the bottom on a lot of the maps.

West of ABQ and especially when you get into Arizona it is beautiful.  The mountainous region of Flagstaff, AZ is full of pine trees rather than the desert landscape which I like.  My parents are visiting me from AZ for the holiday and they said the ski season this year was off to a fast start.  This particular storm dumped a few inches in that region.  Over the last 2 winters they couldn't buy a flake of snow because of the west coast ridge.  I've never been to Zion National Park but it is on my bucket list of places to visit and hike.

We stayed one night in Flagstaff and I remember the smell of pine trees all around our motel.  Very pretty.  We also went 30 minutes south to Slide Rock State Park and went swimming in the canyon there. Great fun!

Zion is worth the visit if you get out that way again. Very pretty! My daughter and son in law hiked in the upper narrow canyons where you have to wade through water in places. Me and the wife hiked down a bit lower.  Flash flooding can be a problem in those narrow canyons and I think around seven people drowned there a month or two after we had visited because of flash flooding. It made the national news as I remember.

When I drove down to AZ this past summer on I-40 driving through OKC, Amarillo, TX and Albuquerque, NM...I thought to myself...what would it look like in a major winter storm this coming Winter???  Here we are, that thought is now manifesting into reality.  That drive is very "boring" for those who haven't experienced it.  When you get into Albuquerque, the mountainous region mixes in with the desert landscape and it looks quite nice.

I made that trip last July.  Topeka, KS, OKC, AMA, ABQ, Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon to Zion National Park in Utah and I-70 back to Kansas.  New Mexico west of ABQ was very pretty I thought. OKC to ABQ was not particularly exciting to me anyway. Lots of wind farms as I remember.

That map was 24 hour snowfall from Noon Monday to Noon Tuesday and most of the KC snow comes before that.

Yeah, I just edited my comment.

Gary Lezak just posted a comment on his blog saying the Euro shows 6"-12" for the KC area by midnight Monday night.  That posted snow map doesn't show that. Wonder what he's looking at? 

ETA: oops, noticed the posted map is for 24 hrs only and not a storm total. Still not sure that accounts for the difference.

The GFS should just admit it has no idea what will happen...

12z GFS continues to look good for me but I'm not buying in quite yet.  Still lots could go wrong with the lead wave and HP.  I never feel good being in the bullseye five days out...been burned on that too many times.

That shift to the southeast actually puts me in the game for heavy snow rather than plain old rain.  Still a long ways to go though...

Meanwhile, the 18z GFS drops two feet of snow in central OK up to SW MO for the after Christmas storm.  I wonder what else we'll see on the models during the coming week...

My pond is still running in the low 40s also. The pond is more like 15,000 gallons though! You have fish? I have about 60 goldfish in mine and they are quite happy right now. I had to shut everything off and pull in the pump last month before the snowstorm - If I knew it was going to be this mild I would have put it off until early next week. O well, not bothering putting all pump and uv filter back in now.

 

Not supposed to get to 60° anymore today. Fog and 40s now the forecast.

15,000 gallons and you only have about 60 goldfish - are you sure that's all? 

I have around 40 goldfish in my 150 gals and, yes, it is too many - but that's their fault.     So far the water stays balanced and the fish are healthy so I leave things alone.

Not to bore everyone but I thought I'd give you an update of what the Topeka, KS winter has been like which is like reading the U.S. Internal Revenue Service Tax Code.

We have had 0.1 inches of snow for the season (fell in November) which is remarkable since it is warm most of time. Monthly average temp(F) anomalies have been: Oct +2.1  Nov +4.7  Dec 1-11 +8.9. Warm, warmer, and more warmer (relative to normal).

The water temp in my 150 gal yard pond is still 40F and I still have the summer pump in.  Last year I had to put in the winter pump in November and it was iced over much of the time after that.

Nothing much on the horizon except more rain and warmth.  Not too exciting........so there is 15 seconds of your life you'll never get back. 

Here we've made it through Nov, Dec, Jan and the first half of Feb, with nothing more than a 2" sloppy snow in mid Dec and a seasonal total of 5.3 inches.  This winter has been a total joke.  Looking forward to spring.........

The 00z NAM snow map above sorta shows it (but 57 hrs out shows it better) how the snow tracks this winter absolutely despise the I-70 corridor through northeast KS on into MO.  Snows tracks are north or south or east or in this case simply skip over the area along the interstate. It gets quite comical looking at the models... 

Out here on the SW outpost (Topeka KS) our rain has been mixing with small sleet and snow crystals within the last hour.  You can hear it hitting things and see it on the pavement.  Our local forecast called for plain rain until midnight.  My temp peaked at 39.7 at about 11AM and has slowly fallen to 36.9 now.

Not sure this means anything in the bigger picture but maybe a positive sign especially for the Nebraska folks...

I'm noticing the sharp cutoff, too.  I might be able to watch the snow pile up on the northern horizon while standing in the rain at my house....

D**n that's a perfect track just eight degrees too warm. Oh well.

Nah, more like a steady rain causes the temp to hold at 34F for 14 straight hours...a snow lover's perfect day...  

Yep...looks like I'll be posting over on the "Super Bowl Weekend Major Rainstorm" thread...