Speaker 1: Dave Fraser, Fox thirty one's chief Meet. It's chief with
Speaker 1: an F at the end, not a P. Chief Meteorologist.
Speaker 1: Dave Fraser joins us. Okay, Dave, you know it's another Wednesday.
Speaker 1: It's another wacky weather day. I love the way we've
Speaker 1: think this up. It's so beautiful. But what actually is
Speaker 1: happening right now?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean last week we had when I was
Speaker 2: talking to you, we were dealing with a similar event.
Speaker 2: We had a windy day.
Speaker 3: We had high.
Speaker 2: Wind warnings in the foothills where they are in place
Speaker 2: again today. That wind continued last Thursday. Right now, the
Speaker 2: wind is just getting underway in the foothills. You just
Speaker 2: heard the reports from your own Jonathan. We've got some
Speaker 2: forty fives and sixty mile proud guys.
Speaker 3: They're way up high.
Speaker 2: Think a birthed pass and some of the higher terrain.
Speaker 2: What will happen is the forecast for the strongest winds
Speaker 2: is going to be from about one to five, so
Speaker 2: we're about a half an hour out to get things rolling,
Speaker 2: and the wind will literally translate or roll down the
Speaker 2: foothills out across those western areas where they're proactively shutting
Speaker 2: down the roads like you just reported Highway ninety three,
Speaker 2: for instance, between Boulder and Golden and then the wind
Speaker 2: will come out to I twenty five and around.
Speaker 3: Five or six o'clock.
Speaker 2: We expect the wind, the strongest of the wind to
Speaker 2: then retreat quickly back up the foothills, and then there
Speaker 2: will be a secondary push of wind over the open
Speaker 2: eastern plains, but not as strong. So expect the wind
Speaker 2: to start to pick up. It'll come out of the
Speaker 2: west and speeds will be about thirty to.
Speaker 3: Sixty is what we're thinking. This has been.
Speaker 2: A very interesting forty eight hours as it comes to
Speaker 2: a wind event. I have never seen such hype on
Speaker 2: a wind event. I think excel with the power outages
Speaker 2: added to that, I think the school closes.
Speaker 3: I've never seen anything like that, but it has been
Speaker 3: I was saying today, Rug.
Speaker 2: What's been a challenge for I think those of us
Speaker 2: in the meteorology field is and especially the those of
Speaker 2: us you know, with the voice being on television or
Speaker 2: on the radio and so forth, is trying to push
Speaker 2: back against the wave of social media height that was
Speaker 2: just over the top and trying to bring people down
Speaker 2: off the ledge and say listen, this is a wind
Speaker 2: event it gets windy and Colorado. And I understand. I
Speaker 2: agree with your I listened to you just a few
Speaker 2: minutes ago with your ramp on Excel and what they're
Speaker 2: doing and why when they, you know, got the billion
Speaker 2: dollar lawsuit from the Marshall fire. They're being proactive. I
Speaker 2: get it. But the message I'm getting, you know, emails
Speaker 2: from friends and stuff like talking about ninety hundred miles
Speaker 2: per hour winds that are not even in the high
Speaker 2: wind warning, right, the message just went rolling about as
Speaker 2: fast as the wind's going to go this afternoon.
Speaker 1: So wait a minute, So I have I created my
Speaker 1: first ever when will a high profile a vehicle get
Speaker 1: tumped over? And I got two eleven am I early
Speaker 1: for that. Should I back it up a little bit
Speaker 1: toll like three thirty four, maybe right around five pm?
Speaker 2: I would say, if there's money involved, I would hold
Speaker 2: off till maybe after three o'clock. The problem is going
Speaker 2: to be they closed those prone areas. There's not going
Speaker 2: to be any high program shcles on those areas, right,
Speaker 2: so they're trying to avoid that. And I get the
Speaker 2: proactive thing. I get it.
Speaker 3: I understand, but you know you.
Speaker 2: Mentioned one of the things that we've been talking about
Speaker 2: in the newsroom. Is we were getting ready to you know,
Speaker 2: cover the event. Is you mentioned that, you know, Excel
Speaker 2: is the one that is you know, doing the power,
Speaker 2: you know, turning off the power, but there are a
Speaker 2: lot of communities that don't get their power from Excel.
Speaker 2: And so like I'm down here in Douglas County and
Speaker 2: my provider is Core. Not much coming out of Core
Speaker 2: as far as what they might do or turning off
Speaker 2: power any concerns. But then you mentioned Longman. Longman was
Speaker 2: kind of interesting and it could be a case study
Speaker 2: for what maybe other power grids and companies need to do.
Speaker 2: They were proactive. They even went out early, we reported
Speaker 2: last night and picked up trash before the wind was
Speaker 2: supposed to roll in so that it wasn't blowing all
Speaker 2: over the neighborhoods. And whatever they're doing with their power grid,
Speaker 2: they were not expected to have to turn off power.
Speaker 2: So it's really interesting to see what's plating out in
Speaker 2: the power and that is not anything that I have
Speaker 2: any knowledge of beyond you know, like a Rod was saying, you.
Speaker 3: Get it, the whole solar.
Speaker 2: Panel thing, this is just way outside of our understanding.
Speaker 3: But like I said, this is a typical.
Speaker 2: In my opinion, wind event. It's a chinook wind, it's
Speaker 2: a snow eater. It's strong, but it doesn't last long.
Speaker 2: I had to push back so hard last.
Speaker 3: Night on listen, guys, this is not an all day event.
Speaker 2: I must have said a dozen times. You're not going
Speaker 2: to find the wind when you step out in the morning.
Speaker 2: It's going to be from about noon to six, more
Speaker 2: so one to five. It'll literally come like a rolling
Speaker 2: snowball down the foothills out across High twenty five. The
Speaker 2: farther east you go, it'll fan out and kind of
Speaker 2: slow down a little bit, even though it'll stay breezy.
Speaker 3: On the eastern planes.
Speaker 2: And that'll be it, and hopefully we get out of this.
Speaker 2: The biggest message I had last night, Mandy was standing
Speaker 2: on my soapbox saying, please, for the love of God,
Speaker 2: calm down anything it causes a spark, yeah, or do
Speaker 2: anything with an open flame.
Speaker 3: And if we can do that and avoid.
Speaker 2: Any source of a fire that could be fanned by
Speaker 2: these strong winds, then we escape this without any problems
Speaker 2: other than the huge inconvenience of the power being turned off.
Speaker 1: Amen to that. I have another weather question for you
Speaker 1: before we get away from this. This is from Cindy
Speaker 1: and it's a deep one. You ready put on your
Speaker 1: thinking cap here, Dave Mandy, I have a climate question
Speaker 1: for Dave. I'm trying to figure out the why behind
Speaker 1: different climates, specifically why rainforests get all the perks while
Speaker 1: arid areas like the northwest New Mexico get skipped over
Speaker 1: like a bad song on the playlist. What's the main
Speaker 1: culprit here? Is it topography, the jet stream or some
Speaker 1: ocean drama. I don't know about. I know whether eventually wait,
Speaker 1: she's not done. I know whether eventually makes climate. So
Speaker 1: I'd love to know why northwest New Mexico is so dry.
Speaker 1: Is there a sightific reason or is it just because
Speaker 1: Mother Nature has a vendeta against me? Specifically that from Cindy.
Speaker 2: It's not a vendetta. I can tell you that. That's
Speaker 2: a longer question than I can answer. But the reality
Speaker 2: is it is ocean driven. It is jet stream driven.
Speaker 2: There are certain areas so West coasts near cold climate
Speaker 2: waters Pacific ocean temperature and stuff tend to be drier
Speaker 2: than those that have access to a higher humidity like
Speaker 2: the rainforests and stuff. You have all sorts of different.
Speaker 3: Climates across the globe.
Speaker 2: Based on latitude, longitude, proximity to water bodies and so forth,
Speaker 2: and of course that is all influenced. The definition of
Speaker 2: weather is.
Speaker 3: Variable, and that's the day to day challenges.
Speaker 2: We as meteorologists struggle to come up with the forecast
Speaker 2: of what's going to happen, when, where, what time, how much,
Speaker 2: how cold, how strong will the wind be? The climate
Speaker 2: is a thirty year average of what you might expect
Speaker 2: in those areas. Coming from Florida, you might have an
Speaker 2: understanding of what the weather might be on a general
Speaker 2: pattern through the year, and the same would be true
Speaker 2: for those of us here in Colorado. We know our falls,
Speaker 2: we know our snow seasons and so forth. So it's
Speaker 2: a thirty year average. And by the way, that average
Speaker 2: is a rolling average, so you drop one year off,
Speaker 2: you add another one on, and sometimes those numbers change
Speaker 2: a little bit over the course of time.
Speaker 1: All right, then that was pretty good for a short answer.
Speaker 1: One Texter said this, Dave, and I'm not sure how
Speaker 1: accurate it is.
Speaker 2: Mandy.
Speaker 1: Long lined lions get power from the Platte River Authority
Speaker 1: and most of the power lines are buried, So perhaps
Speaker 1: that is the difference.
Speaker 2: That and you made a really good point. And again
Speaker 2: I don't want to go down.
Speaker 3: The rabbit hole of politics when it comes to this.
Speaker 2: Because I know nothing about the energy business when it
Speaker 2: comes to their responsibilities and the cost of maintaining lines.
Speaker 2: But I do think the question becomes, given the fact
Speaker 2: that we are a very wind prone area, why isn't
Speaker 2: there being more to get those lines down below ground,
Speaker 2: especially in those areas where we know that when we
Speaker 2: get these wind events, the power lines are susceptible. Think
Speaker 2: of Coal Creek Canyon. It's like a blow torch when
Speaker 2: the wind comes rolling down that canyon and blast out
Speaker 2: by Highway ninety three and seventy two. So if we
Speaker 2: can at least protect the higher, more susceptible areas, maybe
Speaker 2: not the entire state of Colorado might be helpful.
Speaker 1: Am end of that. That's Dave Fraser. Dave, we will
Speaker 1: talk to you next year, buddy, because you're off, I'm off,
Speaker 1: so we'll have weather Wednesday. January seventh will be the
Speaker 1: next weather Wednesday. Have a wonderful holiday and enjoy your
Speaker 1: time off.
Speaker 2: And I and the same to you and I hope
Speaker 2: everybody does, because this will be our last chance to
Speaker 2: tell them. And unfortunately, I will tell you that the forecast.
Speaker 3: For Christmas is dry and warm right now, forecasting around
Speaker 3: sixty five.
Speaker 2: So I'll leave you. I'll leave you with that grench
Speaker 2: of a forecast, that everybody enjoy it, and let's look
Speaker 2: forward to twenty twenty six, all right, Thanks Dave Fraser,