Category Archives: Weather +Climate

Politics, Weather +Climate

OMG!

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Spring                                                                                     Maiden Moon

Blew the driveway twice in the same day for the first time this winter. Not sure how much snow we got, but the water content is very high. A good thing. Maybe 1 foot, maybe a bit less. (between 16 & 20 inches, actually) Knee held up through both times. Good sign, I think.

Head spinning as I read political news. Jeb Bush endorses Ted Cruz. Apparently some young shrub in Texas may be the next hedge hope for the White House and he’ll need Cruzian support. Cruz himself wants a police guard on Muslim neighborhoods in the U.S. Trump would close our borders until we got things sorted out. Like watching a building demolition in slow motion, seeing the Republican party try to make sense of the mess they have wrought.

Aging, GeekWorld, Health, Jefferson County, Mountains, Shadow Mountain, The West, Weather +Climate

Knee, Snow, Travel

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Spring                                                                                         Maiden Moon

The knee, 20 hours later. Feeling pretty good. Almost normal. A bit creaky, a little twingey, but otherwise, pretty damned good. The cortisone effect can last from weeks to months. I’m hoping months. The big issue with the knee, beyond Asia, is my regular workout. High intensity workouts, which I’ve been doing for a while, require some speedier, more stressful moments on the treadmill. The cortisone will make them easier for now. Worth it.

In other news here on Shadow Mountain we’re getting what may well may be another foot of snow. And this stuff is wet. And therefore heavy. Of course it’s Wednesday, when the trash goes out. Gonna get the yellow Cub Cadet out, but if it plugs up all the time, I’ll wait for the solar snow shovel or find somebody to plow us out.

Up here the forecast can change quickly if a system moves a bit further north or south. Last night the forecasts were for 2-7 inches. But in reality.

Today, and maybe tomorrow, is going to be largely trip related. Finish photographing our stuff. Get necessary information onto a flash drive for portability. Open a dropbox account to put my writing in the cloud. Get our emergency box of important papers put together. Sign up for international cell phone plans. Figure out how folks can contact us when necessary. Fussy stuff.

 

Colorado, Mountains, The West, Weather +Climate

Snowpack

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Imbolc                                                                          Maiden Moon

Winter snows have more long term relevance here than in Minnesota. The snowpack in the Rockies, especially the mountains whose melting snows feed the Colorado River, influences water availability in nine states including drought battered California. So when we get a late March snow like the one going on right now-about a foot when it’s done according to Weather Underground-there are lots of happy people. This snow and a couple more apparently coming next week are welcome because we had a dry February and a dry, up until now, March.

snowpack graph

 

 

Asia, Dogs, Family, Weather +Climate

Just Daily Stuff

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Imbolc                                                                                     Valentine Moon

The roads are clear. The sun is shining. The snow on the roof, the stairs up to the loft and what remained after I cleared the driveway has begun to melt. Colorado for sure. Not Minnesota. If we’d had the snow in Andover that we’ve had here, we’d be barricaded with steep white walls around our home.

Vega experienced a setback with her recovery. An infection set in and we’ve had to severely restrict her movement while hitting her with even more powerful antibiotics. With a drain in the amputation site she’s getting better, but it means a bit more drawn out road to full mobility. We’re in doggy hospital mode.

We’re working on our trip to Korea and Singapore. No tickets yet, but soon. Dog boarding has already been arranged. As with our cruise around Latin America, it will be a major expense.

Colorado, Shadow Mountain, Weather +Climate

Winter. Again.

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Imbolc                                                                                    Valentine Moon

Feb 23, 2016
Feb 23, 2016

Chinook winds brought us warm days, several in a row. Snow melted in the unshaded portions of our yard, though several inches remained over most of it. Today, though, all is white, curvy and gently rolling. We got 10 inches + overnight. Another powdery snow and it’s still falling. When the weather predictions for snow come out, we’re almost always in the area targeted for more snow. And this year, most of the time, we’ve exceeded the predictions.

Right now the snow falls in big, fat flakes, what I’ve come to think of as flour sifter snow. Somewhere above us an angel or an aeronautical giant has a huge bin of snow, a gigantic screen on the bottom. They’re working that bin back and forth, back and forth.  The lodgepole’s branches, already bent toward the earth, bow down even more. The aspen outside this window (I’m in the house in our home office.), our only deciduous tree up here, looks on, placid and stripped down for the season. Waiting.

The solar panels wed us even more to the cycles of weather and the sun’s angle. When snow covers the panels, no production. When the sky is cloudy, production diminishes. As the days lengthen and the sun rises higher in the sky, production increases. The solar panels are our photosynthesis. We have become plants. Sunshine = energy.

Jefferson County, Our Land and Home, Shadow Mountain, The West, Weather +Climate

Still Trying to Get This Done

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Imbolc                                                                          Valentine Moon

As the chinook winds have eaten our snow cover and dried out the grasses and downed trees, the fire hazard went up to a red flag warning on Wednesday. That means that if a fire happens, it has a good chance, a very good chance, of getting out of control. Not that I needed more to concentrate my mind on fire mitigation.

The chainsaw has sat idle for some weeks now as arthritis and snow cover combined to keep it in the garage. Though I could get out now, I haven’t. On some days the winds have been too high, on others I just didn’t feel like it. I still have several trees to remove, almost all now in the back, a few trees to limb and several trunks to cut into fireplace size logs for curing.

That I can do. What I also want are external fire sprinklers. They exist. It’s possible to imagine a system for our home, but external sprinklers are not part of the fire mitigation culture here. Even the Colorado State Forest Service recommended against one in a letter to me: “…too many variables that could go wrong with the system, including losing power during a wildfire, or forgetting to drain the system during cold weather and the pipes freezing.” Well, we have a working generator. At last! And, draining a system…well, we can get that done.

Still, because of this hesitancy, the folks who do fire mitigation have not developed products or services for homeowners. So this week I’m going to start contacting irrigation companies. They understand the technology and might be able to construct our system.

When I had the assistant chief of the Elk Creek Fire Protection District come out and do a fire mitigation analysis for our property, he said that external sprinklers do work and they would work here. Just not many folks doing it. Well, we’re gonna be among them, one way or the other, and I need to get this work done before May.

Asia, GeekWorld, Great Work, Health, Third Phase, Weather +Climate

Saturday

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Imbolc                                                                             Valentine Moon

 

Not used to being the slow one, but in our tai chi class, now in its 6th week of 8, I am. It’s ok though. I need repetition and once I get it, I’ll have it, so speed of learning is not so important here as quality over time. Physically co-ordinated things have never been my shining moment.

The weather has been warm and in mid-winter on the eastern slopes that means chinooks. Warm = windy at this time of year. Still learning the weather patterns. It has made for outstanding electricity production. Yesterday’s output is below.

Feb 19 2016

 

Mountains, Shadow Mountain, Weather +Climate

At 8,800 feet

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Imbolc                                                                                                Valentine Moon

These chinook winds are formidable. Here’s the weather advisory for today:

High Wind Warning remains in effect until noon MST Friday... 

* timing... southwest winds will increase in the Front Range
  foothills through the afternoon... peaking in the late afternoon
  and evening hours.

* Winds... west to southwest 30 to 45 mph with gusts to 80 mph
  mainly above 7500 feet. West to northwest winds 35 to 50 mph
  with possible gusts to around 90 mph tonight and Friday
  morning.

* Impacts... people planning travel should be prepared for very
  strong cross winds causing hazardous driving conditions. Hikers
  should be alert for falling trees. Power outages will also be
  possible.


And, just to add something extra to winter: a red flag warning.


Red flag warning remains in effect until 6 PM MST this evening
for wind and low relative humidity for areas south and southeast
of Denver... fire weather zones 216... 241... 245... 246... and 247... 

* affected area... fire weather zones 216... 241... 245... 246 and 
  247.

* Timing... gusty winds will continue through with humidities
  dropping. Winds will remain very strong this evening but
  humidities will increase.


A red flag warning means that critical fire weather conditions
are either occurring now or will occur shortly. A combination of
strong winds... low relative humidities... and dry fuels can
contribute to extreme fire behavior.  If a fire is started or
ongoing the potential for it to rapidly spread is high.