Mountain West Discussion

[Front Ranger]

I have seen upper 60s in January here on numerous occasions.

 

Variability is one thing... but snow in May and/or September just sucks.   I am happy not seeing snow in April or October as well.   Having a good garden there must be harder with the ends of the season possibly cut off.    Our garden would not be happy about a low of 29 with heavy snow.

 

http://s3.postimg.org/4lv27zes2/11126891_811996315535245_256542982954589225_o_1.jpg

 

Eh. From a purely garden enthusiast perspective, I guess it would suck.

 

From a weather enthusiast perspective, I'm totally cool with it. And it will be back in the 60s in a couple days.

[Black Hole]

Eh. From a purely garden enthusiast perspective, I guess it would suck.

 

From a weather enthusiast perspective, I'm totally cool with it. And it will be back in the 60s in a couple days.

Yeah I agree there. From a weather perspective its a no-brainer.

[Jesse]

Yeah I agree there. From a weather perspective its a no-brainer.

That's what you get for talking weather on a gardening forum.

[luminen]

Took these today. The snowy ones are from 630am and then I went out a few hours later and took the others. It's sunny now so it's pretty strange seeing snow with such a high sun angle and strong UV.

[Front Ranger]

Ended up with about 5" here.

[BLI snowman]

Slop fest!

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Wow what a sloppy mess! I see its still below freezing in Cheyenne and Laramie. 

[Front Ranger]

Slop fest!

 

Indeed. The snow that was falling (a lot of it actually fell at temps below freezing) was falling on very saturated ground. Combine that with rapid melting today with the May sun angle, and you have the ingredients for a very wet and sloppy aftermath.

[Front Ranger]

Pics!

 

I didn't take any...too busy this morning. Here's one from someone else in Westminster today.

 

 

 

[Black Hole]

That looks a lot like the snow we get last month. Fun stuff!

 

We dry out for a few days here but another wet system is moving in on Saturday. We will take what we can get.

[Black Hole]

Another rain event on tap tomorrow evening. Overall we continue to look quite wet for the next 2 weeks compared to average.

[Front Ranger]

Looking seasonable/cool here for the foreseeable future with lots of t-storm chances.

[Front Ranger]

Several tornado-warned storms on the plains east and north of here.

[Front Ranger]

So are you going to jump in your car and go chase those? 

 

Ha, no. Haven't storm-chased in quite awhile...too busy these days.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

I'll be in Colorado/Wyoming on the 28th and 29th. Wife and kids have been out visiting family in Oklahoma and I'm meeting them in Denver on their way back. Hoping to see a few nice storms along the way. And not go crazy driving from Denver to Silverton with 2 infants and a toddler!  

[Black Hole]

Its been raining all day in Utah from a deformation band. About .40" at my house, but I was up in Logan where its rained more all day. Driving through the canyon up there was pretty scary. I saw a few cars that had hydroplaned off the road. I hydroplaned about 10 times or so as there was lots of standing water on the road, but knew enough about how to handle it that I didn't totally lose control. Pretty crazy stuff though.

[Front Ranger]

Another damp and cool day here. Tomorrow will be cooler and wetter. And even though it dries out some later this week, there's still the possibility of showers every day, with heavier rain increasing again late in the week.

 

People are complaining about the lack of sun and warm temps. I love it 

[luminen]

Another damp and cool day here. Tomorrow will be cooler and wetter. And even though it dries out some later this week, there's still the possibility of showers every day, with heavier rain increasing again late in the week.

 

People are complaining about the lack of sun and warm temps. I love it 

 

Yeah I'm enjoying the PNW-like winter weather here. Only got up to the mid to upper 40s in Denver today.

 

I was up in the Rocky Mtns on Saturday near Rainbow Curve and Bear Lake and it was snowing quite a bit. I can't imagine how much snow they have now up there with the recent big storm.

[Front Ranger]

Yeah I'm enjoying the PNW-like winter weather here. Only got up to the mid to upper 40s in Denver today.

 

I was up in the Rocky Mtns on Saturday near Rainbow Curve and Bear Lake and it was snowing quite a bit. I can't imagine how much snow they have now up there with the recent big storm.

 

The ground is so saturated at this point that I think there's reason for more serious flooding concern late this week. Especially since the next storm will be warmer and probably melt a fair amount of snow.

 

MAIN ATTENTION WILL TURN TOWARD NEXT STORM SYSTEM DROPPING

SOUTHWARD ALONG THE CALIFORNIA COAST. THIS WILL BRING INCREASING

MOISTURE...AND AN EMBEDDED SHORT WAVE MOVING AHEAD OF THIS

FEATURE IS EXPECTED TO REACH COLORADO THURSDAY NIGHT. AHEAD OF

THIS...AIRMASS WILL DESTABILIZE ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS AND MAY EVEN

SEE ENOUGH DAYTIME HEATING ON THURSDAY TO HELP SURFACE BASED

CONVECTION DEVELOP ON THE NEARBY PLAINS. MAIN SHOT OF MORE

SIGNIFICANT AND WIDESPREAD PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED TO ARRIVE

THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY AS THE LEAD SHORT WAVE PUSHES ACROSS

THE STATE. THERE IS ONCE AGAIN PLENTY OF LOW/MID LEVEL MOISTURE

AND HIGH PRECIPITABLE WATER VALUES TO BRING A THREAT OF LOCALLY

HEAVY RAINFALL. THIS SYSTEM IS WARMER AS WELL...SO COULD SEE RAIN

ON TOP OF SNOWPACK AS SNOW LEVELS MAY HOVER CLOSER TO 11 THOUSAND

FEET.

 

Boulder is already over 5" of precip on the month. Going to be the wettest May since 1995, the monthly record holder with 9.59". 

[Black Hole]

We are at around 3.5" or so at SLC airport, I'll have to look. In the top 10 wettest mays now, and that will go up.

[luminen]

Another cold and cloudy day today. It's 44F right now where I am and 42F at the airport. 32-34 degrees colder than Fairbanks. 

 

edit:

 

42F and drizzle now... 

 

Overall, it looks cool and wet here for the next 2-3 weeks. It'll be interesting to see how summer turns out after this past month.

[Front Ranger]

Neither BOU or DEN have hit 80 yet this month, and don't look like they will any time soon. I'd have to do some research, but I'm pretty sure this is quite rare.

[luminen]

Here are some pics from last Saturday in the mountains. I heard some rumbles of thunder while it was snowing.

[Black Hole]

Had a few more thunder showers today. More of the same tomorrow and some wrap around possible Saturday. Into next week it looks to remain wet at times and cool. I think this pattern may break, even if temporarily, in about 10 days.

[Front Ranger]

Another cloudy, wet, cool day. Tomorrow looks pretty interesting if we can get some heating.

 

FOR
TOMORROW...THE MAIN UPPER LEVEL LOW WHICH IS CURRENTLY OVER
ARIZONA WILL BE EJECTING OVER WESTERN COLORADO TOMORROW AFTERNOON.
STRONG DYNAMICS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS FEATURE WILL COMBINE WITH
ABUNDANT LOW LEVEL MOISTURE AND A DEEPENING SURFACE LOW TO SET THE
STAGE FOR AN OUTBREAK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS THE PLAINS.
HAVE INCREASED POPS TO THE LIKELY CATEGORY AND ALSO MENTIONED THAT
SOME STORMS MAY BE SEVERE. HEAVY RAIN FROM THESE STORMS MAY CAUSE
LOCALIZED FLOODING PROBLEMS. STAY TUNED FOR THE LATEST FORECAST
PRODUCTS.

[luminen]

Welp, it's raining again. Only one lightning strike and two really long rumbles of thunder so far. Tomorrow does look pretty juicy though...  

[Black Hole]

Had a few thunderstorms around today but just sprinkles for me. Warm advection wrap around precip setting up tonight. Should be a decent rain event tomorrow. Literally the exact same set up from the last two Saturdays. Kind of crazy to see that.

[Front Ranger]

Convinced a friend to go storm chasing with me this afternoon. He's bringing a dash cam and high quality camcorder. Leaving now, hopefully I'll have some fun pic/videos to share later.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Convinced a friend to go storm chasing with me this afternoon. He's bringing a dash cam and high quality camcorder. Leaving now, hopefully I'll have some fun pic/videos to share later.

 

Nice! OKC could make a run at 20" of rain this month...

[BLI snowman]

Neither BOU or DEN have hit 80 yet this month, and don't look like they will any time soon. I'd have to do some research, but I'm pretty sure this is quite rare.

 

Looks like 1957 was the last time that that happened.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

E. Colorado now under a tornado watch. 

[luminen]

Pretty good thunderstorm moving through right now. I can see snow-covered Pikes Peak to the south, two rainbows, the Front Range, and it's raining heavily with some thunder and lightning. Weird.

[Front Ranger]

Looks like 1957 was the last time that that happened.

 

There you go. DEN also didn't hit 80 in April. I would venture a guess that they may be approaching a record for days after April 1 without hitting 80.

[Front Ranger]

My buddy has the videos, but we really didn't encounter anything other than really heavy rain and some hail.

[Black Hole]

Had some rain overnight and a few showers this afternoon, but overall pretty quiet. Hiked the Timpanogos Caves today, that was pretty fun.

 

Looks like more rain through Thursday at times and then we dry out and warm up.

[Front Ranger]

Of course today there's a tornado warning out near the same area we were yesterday. Funnel cloud spotted.

 

Also another TOR-warned storm down south of Colorado Springs. 

[Front Ranger]

Confirmed tornado on the ground and baseball-sized hail in Lamar, CO.

[luminen]

Later next week looks nice, finally. I've enjoyed the cold wet weather but it's been since what, March or early April, since we've had any summery weather. Hopefully dew points aren't too low.

[Black Hole]

Had a nice thunderstorm last night, and a few heavy showers today. Looks like the active weather ramps up tomorrow until Thursday or Friday but then a break. Some warm ridging actually looks nice.

[luminen]

Nice thunderstorm rolling through right now. S**tload of lightning and thunder with this one and a lot of hail. Roofs are white.