The good news at the end of a year otherwise filled with less than inspiring events is that the snow pack across the West has improved dramatically in the month of December. If you have been following my blog for a long time, you might have noticed my obsession with snow pack. Snow pack isContinue reading “Snow Pack Improves During December 2021”
Tag Archives: snowpack
Snow, finally?
A much anticipated storm brought snow to the Denver area today. It remains to be seen whether or not it will produce the one half inch required at Denver International Airport to be recorded as our official first snow of the season. But here is the storm track anticipated by the National Weather Service: REALLY???!!!Continue reading “Snow, finally?”
Latest First Snow On Record
We got our first snow last night. It wasn’t much — exactly an inch as measured on our porch railing. But we were all celebrating. Why? Our last snow was 218 days ago, our fifth longest snow-less stretch. Last night’s snow also marks a new record of latest first snow on record. As somebody IContinue reading “Latest First Snow On Record”
Pika Patrol, 2019 Edition
End of summer. It’s time for Pika Patrol! Due to complications last summer, my husband and I weren’t able to volunteer with Front Range Pika Project last fall. We were determined to make it this year. If you have been following my blog for several years, you might remember that two years ago, in 2017,Continue reading “Pika Patrol, 2019 Edition”
We all know we’ve been cool and wet, but WOW!
It has been a wet winter and spring where we live. If you are in the continental United States, it’s been cool and wet where you live, too. This has been the wettest 12 months in the history of the United States. (https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Wettest-12-Months-US-History) According to NOAA’s drought monitor (https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/), almost no place in the USContinue reading “We all know we’ve been cool and wet, but WOW!”
Snow pack. Or Not.
In mountains where snow builds up — any snowy mountains — there is a unique form of water storage. It is the snow itself, and it is called snow pack. Here in Colorado, we rely on the delayed release of water from snow pack melt to slowly recharge the resevoirs into early summer. Above isContinue reading “Snow pack. Or Not.”
This Winter’s Weather Patterns
I’ve been obsessing for the last couple of posts about how dry we’ve been this winter. This image from the NOAA GOES satellite says it all: The blue is storm clouds — Winter Storm Quinn, to be exact, that dumped feet of snow on the Sierra Nevada. It hit the Colorado border and turned northContinue reading “This Winter’s Weather Patterns”
Snowpack Levels Low
Many people don’t realize that the western part of the United States is generally arid to semi-arid. The Pacific Northwest gets biblical amounts of rain, of course, because of the coastal mountain ranges wring the water out of the wet air. Every range of mountains east of the coast catches the ever drier air, andContinue reading “Snowpack Levels Low”
Cornices
My brother and I took a quick trip up to the top of Berthoud Pass to take some photographs of snow cornices earlier this week. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a cornice is “the decorative top edge of a building or column”. A secondary definition, though, is “an overhanging mass of windblown snow or ice usuallyContinue reading “Cornices”
Amy Law, Science Geek 