The Colorado Weather Almanac came out last year and I have added this to my short list of “must read” books for anyone interested in weather, particularly for those in Colorado. Everyone here in Colorado is well aware of the author, Mike Nelson, 7News’ chief meteorologist, and he does an extraordinary job covering the entire gamut of weather conditions we receive here.
The best part of the book is described in one of the words in the title – Colorado. This is all about our weather. It starts out with what is probably in my opinion the single most interesting section, Colorado climate. Mr. Nelson explains all the ins and outs of how our topography and our geography greatly impact the weather we have and why weather varies so greatly over short distances, even within the confines of the metro area and Front Range.
There is of course discussion about standard weather terms we all have heard such as dew point, pressure, fronts, El Nino, La Nina and on and on. The key though is that the book ties all of this into Colorado and how these things directly impact us. Other terms associated with our weather like upslope, downslope, Chinook and more are also covered; things that we hear on the news every day but may not fully understand.
Continue reading Book review: The Colorado Weather Alamanac by Mike Nelson
As part of a special “Best of” series on 
Today at 9:44am marks the Autumn Equinox – the first day of fall. The days are definitely getting shorter and we are seeing less and less daylight. The spring and autumn equinox mark the two days of the year when the center of the Sun will spend a nearly equal amount of time above and below the horizon at every location on Earth and night and day will be of nearly the same length. In short, there is 12 hours between sunrise and sunset. Here along the Front Range we are pleased to see summer-like weather today and for most of the week. 
