The Official 2009-2010 Denver winter weather thread

[Dencolo]

Check out the forecast below and the low temps that will likely be broken. This is one cold October.

Record low for Tomorrow: 25
Projected low for Tomorrow: 23

Record Lowest Max Temp for Tomorrow: 34
Projected High Tomorow 32 (Wow)

Record low for Sunday morning: 22
Projected low Sunday: 19, which would be earliest Den has ever reaced the teens

Bundle up, and have a good weekend......

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.ph ... 04.873&e=1

[VoodooCadillac]

Steady light snow in Cheyenne since about 10:00 AM. Slowly sliding south towards Fort Collins.

[VoodooCadillac]

Front has passed through FC. Temp was 44 at 5:00 PM, it's now 31 (7:15 PM). Light snow has also begun.

[PTPatrick]

the cold air with this is amazing for this time of year...currently 15 in Cheyenne...supposed to go down to 11 tonight. Fort Collins is at 23 now, and supposed to reach mid teens. This cold will probably make short order of the blooms and leaves that have survived this weeks frosts.

[PTPatrick]

Denver now at 22, already broke the record of 25 and will likely blow it out of the water in the next couple house. Flurries are underway downtown. Snowing bad enough north of Fort Collins that I-25 has been shut down up there to the WY border. I-80 in Wy is also closed Cheyenne to Laramie. Craziness. I just walked the dog and couldnt believe how biting the cold was...wind chill of 6 above right now.

[SCMedic]

Went from 48 downtown to 25 at my house in Broomfield on the way home last night. Crazy for an 18 mile drive!

Looks like 2" or so of dry fluffy snow on the ground this morning. Cooooold too.

[VoodooCadillac]

Approximately 3" on our yard/cars in downtown FC early this AM.

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/7963/img3585v.jpg

16 degrees. Still snowing.

[Dencolo]

I've got about an inch of accumulation on the south side, and still coming down. Didn't get any of the freezing drizzle that was mentioned - that was nice. Will be interested to see how long this lasts today. It sure does look cold and white outside.

[PTPatrick]

About an inch downtown too....still snowing lightly. 18 degrees on my yard thermometer

[PTPatrick]

Check out the forecast below and the low temps that will likely be broken. This is one cold October.

Record low for Tomorrow: 25
Projected low for Tomorrow: 23

Record Lowest Max Temp for Tomorrow: 34
Projected High Tomorow 32 (Wow)

Record low for Sunday morning: 22
Projected low Sunday: 19, which would be earliest Den has ever reaced the teens

Bundle up, and have a good weekend......

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.ph ... 04.873&e=1

I think we will break all of these records...BUT I did some checking and this wont be the earliest ever teens. According to NWS that occured on September 29, 1985 when low of 17 was recorded. The lowest max ever for september occurred the same day with a high of 29. That was the infamous September 29th blizzard of 1985 that pulled down numerous tree limbs and power lines with around a foot of snow in the metro area. Incedentally an early cold spell and blizzard did not lead to a necessarily cold and snow winter that year....although November and Decembers snows were well above average in 1985 at 17 and 10 inches). The 85-86 season ended with 63 inches which would be nice considering how Denver's winters have been for that past 10 years.

Also of note...record lows for the 12th, 13th and 14thof October are 10, 4, and 3 respectively...all with an arctic dump and snows in 1969 (not to be confused with the more famous blizzard that occurred earlier in the month in 1969). We obviously wont break those but it puts this cold in perspective as the dates are relatively close. As cold as 17 sounds for early October I cant imagine a low of 3 this time of year. My trees have not begun to drop leaves and I think they froze still green. So much for my color change. October 1969 ended with 31 inches of snow for the month, half of which fell with the blizzard on the 2nd and 3rd. That year featured a very dry november -February period and another series of snows in march and april that brought the total for the season to 65 inches...just a little "above average". Just goes to show how Denver can get to its "average" snow of 60 inches in a very roundabout way.

[VoodooCadillac]

I don't the FC records - and I'm new to area and certainly don't claim to know the local weather patterns - but it seems to me there's been enough snow here to stick around for a little while and set-up some very good radiational cooling if the sky clears at all. So I'm guessing the potential exists for records to be surpassed by a significant margins tonight, and perhaps again tomorrow night as well.

[PTPatrick]

I rechecked now that snow has stopped...2.5 on top of the car and 1.5 on the yard table...I will call that 2 inches. Pavement is melting and drying quite nicely, but not much melting anywhere else. Temps hovering low to mid 20s in the area. If the sun even tries to come through with early October sun angle this would be melted pretty quick. I am surprised more melting isnt going on right now, as I have often seen snow melting under overcast skies and temp below freezing here because suns energy still gets through. Now up toward WY I think there should be plenty on the ground by tonight to allow for some radiational cooling. But it might be cloudy still too, which would decrease some of those effects.

[PTPatrick]

looks like today's high might tie the record LOW for the date. Amazing. It inched up to 25 degrees at DIA a little while ago, but the temp has since gone back down to 24, and daylight is winding down. I am guessing 25 will probably the high. Not only will that tie the record low for the date, but it will be earliest ever occurrence of a high that low.


Evening edit: High reached 26 at DIA, Still the lowest ever max for this early.

[PTPatrick]

Not much happening on GFS for the next 10 days. NExt chance of precip looks looks like a fairly big storm in 11 days or so, but looks like cold air is bottled up in Canada again with that one so if it comes it may be a rain event. In any case, probably worth watching later this week as we get closer. Actually GFS keeps cold air in Canada until the end of the month.

[Dencolo]

Todays high at the airport was 40 degrees, but it didn't get nearly that warm on the south side. It was supposed to get up to near 50 today. Below are the records broken over the weekend.

RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BOULDER, CO
605 AM MDT SUN OCT 11 2009

...NEW RECORD LOW MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE FOR OCTOBER 10TH FOR DENVER...

THE HIGH TEMPERATURE AT DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT REACHED 26
DEGREES YESTERDAY. THIS ESTABLISHES A NEW RECORD LOW MAXIMUM
TEMPERATURE FOR THE DATE. THE OLD RECORD LOW MAXIMUM WAS 34 DEGREES
SET IN 2005.

DENVER ALSO SET A NEW RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE YESTERDAY WITH A LOW OF
17 DEGREES. THE OLD RECORD WAS 25 DEGREES SET IN 1905.

[somethingfunny]

Hehe. The Fox station in DFW just showed a bit on the snow in Denver with footage of cars sliding all over the road and lots of accidents. Our anchor said "So the next you hear someone tell you people don't know how to drive in snow and ice in Dallas...show them this, they can't drive in Denver either!"

And the entire newsroom smirked a little bit.

Slow down, leave a generous following distance, tap rather than slam your brakes, and steer into a skid if you end up having one! Be safe and enjoy your snow guys!

[PTPatrick]

Ha...thats funny but true. I hate getting out on the road around here when there is a snowstorm. Its the cue for the numbnuts with the 4 wheel drive to test it out and see how fast he can go in fresh snowpack. It never ends pretty. There are ALWAYS accidents ANY time snow actually sticks to the road. Many reasons for this:
1) Denver has grown a lot with imports from warm places like California in the last 15 years and by and large winters have not been to bad in those years so these people just arent good at it.
2) Our 59 inch average snow per year(which doesnt happen often anyway) sounds high but when you consider that a The sun, EVEN in the dead of winter helps clear the roads faster than the snow plows can get stop and get their starbucks...we really dont have to actually drive on the interstates with actual snow pak on them very often. This past winter I only had to once, and it 10:00 at night and bumper to bumper traffic because people were driving stupid.
3) for reason number 3, most people in Denver use all weather tires and not snow tires, with the exceptions being those long time natives who are waiting for winters like the 70s', and people who live in the near foothills or palmer divide where they are much more handy.

Utlimately though the first storm or 2 is always worst snow driving actually does take some re-acclimation every winter. Also, the snow fall with this storm was so small that it caught people off guard that the roads would actually be slick. Of course the freezing drizzle and extremely cold temps for this time year had a lot to do with people not driving correctly too. I do not believe roads in the metro area were treated with de-icer either. So there you go, more info that you even needed

[Dencolo]

With temps in the low 20s, the bridges iced over fast, but the ground was surprisingly above freezing in many areas. This may have caused people to be overly optimistic in the driving conditions. In the dead of winter, the roads can pack up snow as fast as the bridges.

I am a transplant from Texas with no previous winter driving experience. I remember the first winter snowstorm I was in here, I took my SUV to an empty parking lot to see what it could handle. I've done that many time since and typically in the winter I"m heading to the slopes on a sometimes treacherous I-70. But I've seen some vehicles going way too fast in poor conditions and wonder if they are locals or transplants - probably a combo of both.

Either way, it looks like the snow and ice will relax here for a while. Looks like the potential for a great weekend ahead.

[VoodooCadillac]

On my 6:00 AM drive to Cheyenne this morning, I-25 north of Wellington was still very treacherous. In fact, there was about a 3-mile stretch just north of Wellington that was glaze ice. Fortunately, the farther north I went, there was more snow on the road, so traction actually got better. Plenty of cars in the median. Looks like Cheyenne got about 9" this weekend.

[SCMedic]

Part of the problem was the early drizzle/snow melt because of the warm ground temps. Then with the crashing temps, we got a quick freeze up, and the roads were sliiick. The rest of the problem was the lack of CDOT road maintanance. I25 at 470 on the north side was snow packed when I left for DIA last Saturday. 470 was packed in places, but otherwise not too bad. Then you hit Pena and it looked like a Mag explosion out there. That road was soaked with mag and fairly snow free, which equals more slick driving. It was a fairly poor combo of events at the same time.