Mountain West Discussion

[Front Ranger]

Another very active day in CO. Large tornado on the far eastern plains, though much quieter day here: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGxp9oeXIAEinpg.jpg:large

[luminen]

Around 215pm where I work had a good classic thunderstorm for about 30 minutes with the heaviest rain I've seen here so far. No hail though, thankfully. The thunder was very clear sounding.

 

Last night was very stormy though. I went to bed during the storm around 1030pm and then woke up at 2am to rain pelting my face. Looks like tonight might be similar judging by the sky...

[TT-SEA]

Around 215pm where I work had a good classic thunderstorm for about 30 minutes with the heaviest rain I've seen here so far. No hail though, thankfully. The thunder was very clear sounding.

 

Last night was very stormy though. I went to bed during the storm around 1030pm and then woke up at 2am to rain pelting my face. Looks like tonight might be similar judging by the sky...

 

 

You sleep outside??  

[luminen]

No I had my window open since it's been pretty warm and the rain just happened to be blowing into my window.

 

Anyway, here is a video of hailstorm cleanup this morning:

 

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_28258514/one-denver-block-buried-under-up-four-feet

 

Yikes!

[Front Ranger]

Storms have moved in here again. Heavy rain, some lightning but nothing like last night.

 

Rockies about to see their 1,274th rain delay of the season.

[luminen]

I live at the top of a hill in a highish building (at the top) and the lightning has been crazy from here. One struck a light pole about 30 feet from my window and then it went dark. 

[Front Ranger]

Storm has intensified quite a bit. Torrential rain for the past 15 minutes. Monsoony...but it's not yet monsoon season.

 

Must be the growing Super Nino.

[AquariusTom]

All the stakeholders in the water issues of the West, and especially the Colorado Plateau, should be aware of ideas that might be of value for building mountain snowpack. Many people of the intermountain west might think heavy rain- near flood- is ok because there are huge dams/reservoirs to catch that flood. Trouble is and has been, when desert dwellers see that huge pool of water, they immediately think of importing it to the desert and they have done so for the last 80 years. Colorado trout streams have suffered ever since. The country has spent billions on big evaporative ponds/lakes in the low desert, but not a penny for maintaining the snowpack. The advantages of moving water to snowpack/glacier storage far out way any man made lake.  Well, people only want to talk about the weather and put a brick in the water closet, thinking they have done their part. And those folks vote for politicians who think putting a brick in the potty is the solution. We are a nation of science and engineering, yet we put a brick in the toilet and water only on odd Tuesdays. And here we are with no water. Wonder why?

[Black Hole]

I'm in Texas still. The other night I hear it rained quite a bit with lightning in the SLC area. Looks like the remnants of the approaching tropical system will bring more rain Wed-Thurs.

[Dan the Weatherman]

Phoenix airport broke its record for precipitation on June 5, receiving .03" of rain.  That broke the record by .03" which was set every other year since they've been keeping track. 

Remnants of TS Andres provided the first rain their airport ever recorded on that day.

 

That just goes to show how rare rain in AZ is during the month of June. The monsoon doesn't usually get going until sometime in July.

[Front Ranger]

Outside shot of our first 90 of the year tomorrow, and then it cools back down and turns wet again later in the week.

 

With increased snow melt and lots of available moisture, flooding issues will likely return as well.

[luminen]

Yeah it was pretty warm today. Around 92F in most places and cloudy skies as the day went on. Thunderstorms in the area now and about 80F. 

[Front Ranger]

Yeah it was pretty warm today. Around 92F in most places and cloudy skies as the day went on. Thunderstorms in the area now and about 80F. 

 

Wasn't that warm up here...high of 85 at my house, same at DEN, 86 at BOU. I think the excessive soil moisture is helping to hold temps back.

 

And has been the story this spring/summer, a 10% chance of rain still resulted a heavy rain shower/t-storm this evening. More storms tomorrow afternoon, and then Thursday is looking very wet.

[Front Ranger]

Pretty sweet pic of storm cloud behind Denver recently. Lots of leafy trees for Tim, too.

 

 

[TT-SEA]

Pretty sweet pic of storm cloud behind Denver recently. Lots of leafy trees for Tim, too.

 

coolpic.jpg

 

That is very cool.  

[Front Ranger]

Looking like a very wet period tomorrow through Friday. The ground is still absolutely saturated and every creek, river, and pond is running high. Potential is there for some serious flooding in some areas, especially with slow moving storms tomorrow evening.

[luminen]

Thunderstorm and heavy rain now. Radar looks healthy.

[Front Ranger]

The deluge has arrived here. .40" rain in the past 30 minutes.

[luminen]

1-1.5" already in my area. Looks like it'll be at least 2" before this event is finished.

[Black Hole]

Nothing happened my entire time in Texas, but I was greeted with a heavy thunderstorms in slc when I got back, even had some small hail! Go figure lol

[AquariusTom]

So  much for modern technology helping snowpack. Not a single comment. Went over like a lead balloon. Anyhow, let's revert back to the recent Captain Kirk/William Shatner idea of just pumping water to where we want it.  Instead of pumping to a thristy city like LA, let's pump water back uphill to the snow line and use our trusty snow maker machines to build the snowfield and eventual glacier. Takes a mighty chunk of green energy. But the West is famous for wind and sun energy. Plenty of it.

[AquariusTom]

You are right. Maybe. I'll leave it to others to talk about the weather.

[luminen]

Yeah, it's a weather forum... 

 

Today might have some action though Monday looks to be more active. I'm still enjoying seeing rain almost everyday in the afternoon/evening. 

 

People here are really complaining though. 

[Front Ranger]

Convection couldn't really get going today with too much low stratus inhibiting heating and instability.

 

Looks like we'll finally hit 90 later this week. Will be the latest in the year I've seen since I've been here. The latest DEN has hit 90 at the current airport location is 6/25.

[luminen]

I'm seeing lightning along the Front Range so we could still see a little action tonight.

[Black Hole]

Had a severe thunderstorm watch here earlier. Several severe storms, although none that went right overhead. We did have a lot of lightning though, and for hours. Pretty fun evening to watch it go by.

 

Looks quiet for the next week at least with some hot weather, but that's pretty normal for this time of year.

[TT-SEA]

Is there any analog year where May and June were insanely wet in the intermountain West and almost totally dry in Western WA and OR?

[Front Ranger]

Is there any analog year where May and June were insanely wet in the intermountain West and almost totally dry in Western WA and OR?

 

None are as extreme as this year, but here's the years that generally match that. Bolded are the closest ENSO-wise.

 

1950

1952

1957

1967

1975

1982

1991

1995

2003

[TT-SEA]

None are as extreme as this year, but here's the years that generally match that. Bolded are the closest ENSO-wise.

 

1950

1952

1957

1967

1975

1982

1991

1995

2003

 

 

I looked back at June in the bolded years... 

 

1957 - it rained on 18 out of 30 days here in June.    Many days in the 60s and cloudy with the warmest temp in the mid-70s.  Not even close to 2015.  

 

1982 - much drier than 1957 with small amounts of rain on 11 out of 30 days.    And a significant warm spell during the middle of the month with chilly periods to begin and end the month.    Much closer but this month still blows it away.

 

1991 - a train wreck of month here.    The exact opposite of 2015.   Rained on 19 out of 30 days and managed to get above 70 on only 5 days in the entire month.   

 

 

This month has been so much nicer overall.   We might be in uncharted territory then with bone dry here and very wet over there.  Even June of 1958 was much wetter and cooler at times.    This month has been very noteworthy for the persistent warmth.    Much like last summer.

 

Just browsing years... 1918 seems to be very close here.   Hardly any rain in June... a warm, dry spring overall.   And the dry weather held into October that year.    The nights were much cooler back then... and there was very little extreme heat that summer.    Interestingly... the summer of 1918 featured a developing strong El Nino that lasted through the winter of 1918-19.   I saw one article say that it was probably one of the strongest Ninos of the century behind 1982-83 and 1997-98.   This was followed by another dry, warm summer in 1919.

[TT-SEA]

Something else is in play this year.   

 

1957, 1982, and 1991 all featured a strongly developing Nino but the results have been quite different so far with no end in sight.   It would be interesting to see what else was in play in 1918 compared to those 3 years.   Data might be scarce back then though.

 

Years like 1918 and 2009 were just very different with a developing Nino.

 

Seems like there are two groups of years in this ENSO situation... and we are getting the warmer and drier type in 2015.

[BLI snowman]

None are as extreme as this year, but here's the years that generally match that. Bolded are the closest ENSO-wise.

 

1950

1952

1957

1967

1975

1982

1991

1995

2003

 

1991 was a pretty cool, wet spring in the NW. Not much of an analog if you're just looking at the weather.

[luminen]

Looking good here right now. It's 82F with a DP at 61F with building thunderstorms with severe potential. Why am I inside still? Time to go outside and enjoy the relatively high humidity.

[Front Ranger]

I looked back at June in the bolded years... 

 

1957 - it rained on 18 out of 30 days here in June.    Many days in the 60s and cloudy with the warmest temp in the mid-70s.  Not even close to 2015.  

 

1982 - much drier than 1957 with small amounts of rain on 11 out of 30 days.    And a significant warm spell during the middle of the month with chilly periods to begin and end the month.    Much closer but this month still blows it away.

 

1991 - a train wreck of month here.    The exact opposite of 2015.   Rained on 19 out of 30 days and managed to get above 70 on only 5 days in the entire month.   

 

 

This month has been so much nicer overall.   We might be in uncharted territory then with bone dry here and very wet over there.  Even June of 1958 was much wetter and cooler at times.    This month has been very noteworthy for the persistent warmth.    Much like last summer.

 

Just browsing years... 1918 seems to be very close here.   Hardly any rain in June... a warm, dry spring overall.   And the dry weather held into October that year.    The nights were much cooler back then... and there was very little extreme heat that summer.    Interestingly... the summer of 1918 featured a developing strong El Nino that lasted through the winter of 1918-19.   I saw one article say that it was probably one of the strongest Ninos of the century behind 1982-83 and 1997-98.   This was followed by another dry, warm summer in 1919.

 

Well, you said dry springs there, wet ones here. I wasn't really looking at June, more April/May.

 

1918 had normal spring/early summer precip here.

[Front Ranger]

1991 was a pretty cool, wet spring in the NW. Not much of an analog if you're just looking at the weather.

 

Hmm, yeah I might have been looking at 1992...that year turned very dry in May.

[luminen]

Hey Flatiron, are the bugs unusually bad/numerous this year? It's not just mosquitoes either that are a problem.

[Cascadia_Wx]

been a warm month so far in the flathead valley

[Front Ranger]

Hey Flatiron, are the bugs unusually bad/numerous this year? It's not just mosquitoes either that are a problem.

Haven't really noticed here...though I did get eaten up last weekend at a festival.

[Black Hole]

Another hot one today, not much more to say than that. I might be moving from Salt Lake City to Bountiful, which is NE of the city. If so, I will probably see more snow there and get in on the downslope windstorms which occur on occasion.

[luminen]

It's just been hot and rainless here so not much else to say at the moment. Dew points during daytime have ranged from ~40F to 61F the past few days so getting a mix of moderately humid (for here) conditions and moderately dry conditions.

 

I can't wait till more severe storms come but I have a feeling we won't see a repeat of May-June again, i.e., we won't be having almost daily thunderstorms. I'd love to be wrong though. 

[Front Ranger]

It's just been hot and rainless here so not much else to say at the moment. Dew points during daytime have ranged from ~40F to 61F the past few days so getting a mix of moderately humid (for here) conditions and moderately dry conditions.

 

I can't wait till more severe storms come but I have a feeling we won't see a repeat of May-June again, i.e., we won't be having almost daily thunderstorms. I'd love to be wrong though. 

 

There's always the monsoon season...usually a nice wet period somewhere in late July - early September.