Denver LACK OF snow/winter thread

[JonathanBelles]

ok...you guys quit hogging the snow. Send it to your southeast please

oOOo CM wants it now, it must be almost Christmas!

[CajunMama]

Well i didn't get any snow the christmas of 2004 (just a few flakes) like new orleans and the gulf coast did. It's my year now!

[Dencolo]

Well it's coming down now. I hope to see 6"+ by tomorrow morning. Radar returns look strong all across the board.

[PTPatrick]

I would be so happy if downtown could rack anything close to 6 inches. Last time I saw that much would have been around christmas last year(which I was not around for)...so technically it was probably the winter of 06/07 the last time I saw a 6+ incher(at once). In any case, snowed a bit on my drive home at 4;30 from Glendale area up to five points in downtown. No accum at that point, but I looked out at 5:30 and its started, have a nice dusting on the cars and grass downtown. I was a little surprised at the wind while walking the pup...quite chilly actually. if that wind keeps up and we get over 4 inches Boulder WFO may have to call a snow and blowing snow advisory. But we'll see. They are always pretty wierd when it comes to winter warnings, and seems like often they through them up unnecessarily and dont use them when it would be a good heads up.

[PTPatrick]

I got 5 inches! Yippee. Looked like a little convective band set up last night along east of I-25 for a while last night and helped me out. Anywho...was super windy, hard measure. I have 2 foot drift on my gate...which runs east west so the north wind really piled it up on there.

[Dencolo]

5", not too bad! We got about 4-5" here. And it looks like multiple days with snow chances on the way. Sweet!

[PTPatrick]

Per latest discussion from NWS, Sunday may struggle to get out of single digits with this arctic front. They are saying teens right now but they dont sound too confident. In any case, that would easily be the coldest air since January of 07 when the high was like 2 above. And whats more...next week could easily stay below freezing until thursday or friday. Too bad no major snows coming in to gaurentee a white christmas...and of course the long range GFS's warmest days in the period for Denver are christmas eve and christmas day.

[Dencolo]

PTPatrick,

I was just about to post almost all the same stuff! But since you nailed it, I'll just post what the NWS said in their discussion -

AND AT THIS TIME WOULD NOT BE SURPRISED IF WE DONT GET MUCH PAST 10F FOR A DAYTIME HIGH SUNDAY.

[CajunMama]

Hey guys...if you sent our snow that i asked for and we recieved yesterday...i just want to thank you!

[Scott Patterson]

It's snowing hard here and they are predicting it will be measured in feet rather than inches.

Unfortunately I have to drive over the mountains to Denver Sunday night. Monday night I hve to drive back over the mountains to Craig and then Tuesday drive to Salt Lake City, again over the mountains. I really hope conditions aren't too dangerous.

[Tampa Bay Hurricane]

It's snowing hard here and they are predicting it will be measured in feet rather than inches.

Unfortunately I have to drive over the mountains to Denver Sunday night. Monday night I hve to drive back over the mountains to Craig and then Tuesday drive to Salt Lake City, again over the mountains. I really hope conditions aren't too dangerous.

Colorado Snow Looks so Beautiful!!!!!!!!!!! Be careful driving though!

[PTPatrick]

Looking at the 0z GFS not much change to the first 7 days as it pertains to denver and the front range. Cold air seems to get reinforced toward end of week. Looks to be decent chances of snow from Sunday morning well into daytime Tuesday in the urban corridor. With the cold temps I definately feel any accum in that period would be very fluffy, and lots of that steady hard to accumulate light snow. GFS a little more liberal with pops...but then I have read that NAM has had that bias in this area for a while now, to keep things too dry.
GFS tried to reinforce the cold air into the weekend and the air looks pretty cold, but GFS hangs it up over the northern rockies and northern plaines. Will see if it gets hung up or not or slides on down like this one did. Finally leading into Christmas week, GFS stays pretty chilly until a bubble of heat starts to come up from the SW toward Christmas eve. Looks like a snow chance in the monday/Tuesday period, and then the shorts weather moves in for christmas.

I will say that I am little surprised at the lack of QPF produced over the front range given the MULTITUDE of lows that GFS has moving over northern new mexico into kansas. That would normally lead to good upslope flow. In fact the storm path would seem ideal for high front range snows. But for whatever reason, and I am not a map expert, most of them seem fairly dry for the front range. Perhaps they just arent deep enough of sucking up enough moisture.

Again...I have southerners coming next weekend that expect to see snow on the ground for christmas...so heres hoping that these little systems combined with very cold days ahead maintains the snow on the ground. I figure if the GFS were 100% right until next sunday...regardless of a christmas eve warmup there would still be a little snow on the ground.

[PTPatrick]

Loving the 12z...its the first GFS lately to NOT try to shunt the cold air east and move warmth in from the SW in the christmas eve to Christmas day period. In fact it looks possibly cloudy and cool with some shortwaves coming through, possibly even some snow showers in the christmas to christmas weekend time frame. . I know all this a long way away but its makes me feel better about the prospect of NOT having a tropical christmas in Colorado. I have noticed a trend lately this week that the 0, 12 z have been colder in the 10+ time frame and the and 18z have been building the southwestern warmth. Interesting phenomenon...i hope the 0, 12 z's are right

[Dencolo]

I'll have to have a look. Last Christmas was awesome, as Denver had the snowiest Christmas in its history. I think most people who don't live here think we always have a white Christmas. Nothing can be further from the truth. While we get our fair share of snow, we can also have days in the 50s and 60s which can melt snow in no time at all.

On another note, it looks like we'll be below freezing starting tonight all the way until Friday. Hopefully we'll have a healthy amount of snow to go with that.

[PTPatrick]

On another note...I was down at c470 and Santa Fe today and couldnt believe the lack of snow down there. I know that area got slammed last week and I expected to see a lot still lying around, but it must have melted even faster than our downtown snow. I know it was warmer down in the Southern part of town today...but not sure if it was like that all week. The only difference in snow cover I noticed in the south part of town was larger piles in the parking lots...

[PTPatrick]

Wow...that front was quite a thing of beauty. It was as if I was on a movie set and somebody flicked on the AC, and put a big fan in front of a bunch of fake snow. I mean literally we were outside by a heater enjoying the evening at about 40 degrees and in about 15 minutes time a howling north wind kicked up snow and dropped to the temp to 19...There wasnt even snow on the ground yet when I left the party but visibility was already bad. Snow was completely horizontal. Still snowing pretty good now, very fluffy snow...wind chill already around 0. No wonder the entire northern plains is under a blizzard warning. I have seen these fronts a couple times before here in Denver and it never ceases to amaze me...sure hope we get more than the 2 inches they are calling for.

[Extremeweatherguy]

Wow, that does sound like an amazing front. Denver Intl. went from 40F to 16F in a matter of 2 hours! Impressive.

[Extremeweatherguy]

Looks like the forecasted low of 10F in Denver tonight is going to bust big time. They are already down to 10F at 12:53MST and will probably continue to fall through sunrise.

[PTPatrick]

TOTAL BUST....woke up this AM it was 5 degrees in my yard, which is in the immediate downtown (a few blocks from business district, very susceptable to heat island). Low was supposed to 12 and get back up to 18 today. It is -1 at DIA as we speak. I suspect downtown will see a high of around 7-9 degrees, DIA, maybe even as low as 2-3. 5 is cold for downtown as we have the heat island, and this only comes a couple times a winter. I have lived here and seen real true blue below zero in downtown twice...and we will no doubt see that tonight with good snow cover. The sun has peaked out, we'll see. I got 2.5 inches of fluff...looks nice. Time to go shopping

[SCMedic]

Temp went down in a hurry last night downtown..30mph wind, blowing light snow... Was coming down pretty good when I got to the house after work at 2am.. My 08 Subaru WRX STI is a BEAST with snow tires.. I was cutting tracks around the neighborhood.

We have about 4" here in Erie. Currently 2 outside... Brrr.. Tonight is going to SUCK at work..