Speaker 1: Dave Frasier, it's our last visit for the year today.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I just asked day Rob. That's to confirm.
Speaker 2: I kind of figured out with both Christmas and New
Speaker 2: Year's falling on Wednesday, So let's enjoy it today. By
Speaker 2: the way, happy one hundreds. What a great institution.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. We do deserve to be institutionalized
Speaker 1: over here at KOA, and so we appreciate them. Warm
Speaker 1: witches on our hundredth birthday. All right, first off, let's
Speaker 1: just cut to the chase. What are our chances for
Speaker 1: a white Christmas.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not great. Unfortunately, we're just in this big
Speaker 2: kind of dry pattern and it doesn't look to break down.
Speaker 2: The mountains have seen some pushes of snow. We had
Speaker 2: one last night, they'll get another push come Monday, late
Speaker 2: Sunday Monday, and then there could be another one late
Speaker 2: in the day on Christmas in the mountains. So if
Speaker 2: you do look on you know, if you want a
Speaker 2: white Christmas and you're in Denver and along the Front Range,
Speaker 2: it will be snow in the mountains. But for the
Speaker 2: Front Range, it's just not looking great. At this point.
Speaker 2: We have nothing but fifty five to sixty Greek temperatures
Speaker 2: expected all the way through the holiday, so it's just
Speaker 2: not there for us. So if you got me snow
Speaker 2: on the ground, I got patches here and that are
Speaker 2: hiding in the shadows. Hopefully that'll still be around come
Speaker 2: Christmas morning.
Speaker 1: Well you know what, though, I gotta tell you, winter
Speaker 1: with fifty to sixty degrees doesn't suck. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't hate that. I actually kind of enjoy that. So
Speaker 1: I know the kids, if they get new sleds for Christmas,
Speaker 1: will be a little disappointed. But you're just gonna have
Speaker 1: to go to the mountains to find that. Now, I
Speaker 1: got a bunch of questions to ask you from our listeners,
Speaker 1: and the first of which is a really really good one.
Speaker 1: I love this question. Can you please ask Dave what
Speaker 1: is the proper way to measure snow here at eight
Speaker 1: thousand feet. I wait until the storm is over and
Speaker 1: will measure, let's say, eighteen inches. My neighbor will repeatedly
Speaker 1: clean off an area and measure multiple times and add
Speaker 1: those numbers together and we'll come up with twenty four inches,
Speaker 1: in your opinion, which is more accurate.
Speaker 2: The clearing off actually does give you the total snow
Speaker 2: that fell during the event, because if you wait until
Speaker 2: the end, especially if it's a heavy wet snow, the
Speaker 2: snow's going to compact and it's going to melt a
Speaker 2: little bit. So you're better off doing variations. Same as
Speaker 2: through for shoveling. We talk about that all the time.
Speaker 2: We're dealing with. You know, a foot or two feet
Speaker 2: of snow, don't wait for it to finish, go out
Speaker 2: and chip away at it. So there is if you
Speaker 2: go to the National Weather Service website and just google
Speaker 2: National Weather Service and you'll go to the Boulder office,
Speaker 2: there is on there you can find a spot where
Speaker 2: they do tell you how to officially do it you want.
Speaker 2: It's called the whiteboard, and you have to put the
Speaker 2: whiteboard out, you have to measure it and has to
Speaker 2: be in the area. But you know, listen, snow measurements.
Speaker 2: There's an official way to do it. But the bottom
Speaker 2: line is as you measure it your neighborhood and your
Speaker 2: next neighbor you're going to find subtle differences in measurements.
Speaker 2: But if you were going to do it for the
Speaker 2: totality of an event, I would say you would chip
Speaker 2: away at it, sweep it off, measure what falls measure
Speaker 2: the next one that falls every six hours or so.
Speaker 1: Here's one for you, Dave. How does the January weather
Speaker 1: look like? Blizzards are mild? Like now, Merry Christmas. I
Speaker 1: guess he's asking really about what long range weather patterns
Speaker 1: we're seeing, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean the long range weather patterns haven't changed. We're
Speaker 2: going to be in an out medio pattern, which means
Speaker 2: that Denver in the front range should do okay by
Speaker 2: the end of the season, meaning we'll have close to
Speaker 2: our fifty three inches of snow. As you know, of
Speaker 2: October helped us out, no excusan November helped us out.
Speaker 2: We're ahead for the year. We're at a little more
Speaker 2: than forty percent of the entire season, and we still
Speaker 2: have all of January, February, March, April or two snow
Speaker 2: this months, so we're in pretty good shape. And the
Speaker 2: snow pack in the mountains is still running at more
Speaker 2: than one hundred percent. So this pattern we're in is
Speaker 2: going to have prolonged dry periods, long periods like we're
Speaker 2: seeing now. We'll see through Christmas. But that doesn't mean
Speaker 2: we won't get bouts of snow like we did back
Speaker 2: in early November when we got that four days of
Speaker 2: measurable snow and on that Friday we had almost ten inches.
Speaker 2: So you know, it never really gives you the day
Speaker 2: to day pattern. But I think overall, when things are
Speaker 2: said and done, we'll find a near average snow season.
Speaker 1: All right, here's the question for you. These are good
Speaker 1: questions today. What is it about the geographical triangle between
Speaker 1: Colorado Springs, Canyon City and Pueblo. It seems to render
Speaker 1: it a precipitation desert. The rain and snow seem to
Speaker 1: circumvent this area unless the weather comes in from the
Speaker 1: east in some fashion.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that's again topography. The geographical features, our mountains,
Speaker 2: our foothills are divided like the Palmer Divide. All of
Speaker 2: those features playing into what we call micro climate. So
Speaker 2: depending on where you are, wind will favor you in
Speaker 2: one direction but not in another. And that area is
Speaker 2: at a lower elevation. That is correct, that area down
Speaker 2: there from Colorado Springs, Canyon City over the pebble, you're
Speaker 2: going to want a straight easterly flow. If we have
Speaker 2: a big storm that sets up with the northeasterly flow
Speaker 2: for Denver and the Palmer Divide, we do very very
Speaker 2: well with snow. But on the other side of the divide,
Speaker 2: going into Colorado Springs and continuing to head south, that
Speaker 2: same wind direction does not favor snow into those areas.
Speaker 2: So wind direction, wind speed is key. And unfortunately that
Speaker 2: area is just kind of if you look at it
Speaker 2: on a map, you'll see that it is kind of
Speaker 2: sitting down on a flat spot. It needs really a
Speaker 2: straight easterly wind and sometimes that's hard to get well.
Speaker 1: And we have a question from another part of Denver
Speaker 1: or another part of Colorado is kind of the same thing.
Speaker 1: Ask Dave why the northern portion of the Front Range, Johnstown,
Speaker 1: BERTHETT is a desert while Denver in south is wet.
Speaker 1: Is it the same answer only on the other end.
Speaker 2: Yeah, same thing. It's all dependent on windflow. Those areas
Speaker 2: are east of I twenty five, so they're not close
Speaker 2: enough to benefit from the higher elevations west of EYE
Speaker 2: twenty five as you approach the foothills, so they don't
Speaker 2: get as much lift. A northeasterly wind should get them
Speaker 2: some snow, but they won't get the depth of snow
Speaker 2: that you will as you go west of I twenty five,
Speaker 2: and that area is in a dead spot because the
Speaker 2: same thing is true. We talk about the Palmer Divide
Speaker 2: that rides in elevation as you leave Denver go over
Speaker 2: Monument Hill and then down into Colorado Springs. Well, there's
Speaker 2: also the Cheyenne Ridge runs east to west, and that
Speaker 2: is another area that if we have a west, a
Speaker 2: north or northwest of the wind coming up and over
Speaker 2: the ridge out of Wyoming down into Fort Collins Loveland
Speaker 2: and heading towards the Johnstown and Berthed areas, that's a
Speaker 2: downsloping wind, that's a drying wind, and they get nothing.
Speaker 2: And you'll see me and hear me talk about that
Speaker 2: all the time when you see me talking about snowfall
Speaker 2: totals and you see this big area of nothing. You
Speaker 2: go Denver. Like the last event we had, Denver got
Speaker 2: you had to get into the city to find two inches.
Speaker 2: You had to go southwest of the city to find
Speaker 2: four inches. But if you left the city and went
Speaker 2: north Buckkiss nothing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is an odd question, and I don't know
Speaker 1: if this is in your field of expertise or not. Dave,
Speaker 1: has the magnetic field changed because waterfowl migration has changed
Speaker 1: a lot, and the weather as well. I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess they're asking, does a magnetic field how much does
Speaker 1: that play in weather?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is a little out of my expertise. I
Speaker 2: mean it does. We know it's changed over time. As
Speaker 2: far as you know, that would be a little lofty
Speaker 2: for me to try and figure out. I'd have to
Speaker 2: go do some studying, and I finished college a long
Speaker 2: time ago, so I wouldn't be able to answer that
Speaker 2: with any type of authority. So I'll let that work pass.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I appreciate that, Dave, because I don't know it either.
Speaker 1: Last question from our text line, Dave, should we do
Speaker 1: some watering because of how dry it is and will
Speaker 1: continue to be? Do we need to water our trees?
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, no question about it. It never hurts in
Speaker 2: these dry periods in winter because you're not getting the
Speaker 2: benefit of higher humidity. The air is very, very dry.
Speaker 2: Even though the trees and the shrubs are dormant, they
Speaker 2: could use a little bit of a drink, So yeah,
Speaker 2: you could do a little bit that. Don't worry about
Speaker 2: your grass. Grass is con dormant, that's not an issue.
Speaker 2: But any trees and shrubs that are healthy looking and
Speaker 2: you want to protect them. It never hurts to run
Speaker 2: a little water on them. You don't have to do
Speaker 2: it daily, but just feed them a little bit here
Speaker 2: and there during dry period. So especially with this stretch
Speaker 2: we're going to be having. I've got fifty to sixty
Speaker 2: degree days, all.
Speaker 1: Right, Dave Frasier, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, all that
Speaker 1: good stuff to you, and we'll talk to you next year, buddy,
Speaker 1: see you next year.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, Happy holiday school all right
Speaker 1: Thank you, Dave Frasier.