Coming Soon – Live Lightning Monitoring!

LightningMrs. Claus was generous enough to give the hubby his Christmas present a few days early – a lightning detector!  These are pretty incredible devices allowing real-time lightning storm monitoring with the ability to detect strikes hundreds of miles away.  More details will be coming after the final installation and calibration is complete.  If you want a sneak peak, click here.  Please bear in mind though that the system setup has not been complete so it isn’t entirely accurate yet. 

Also of note, we are in the process of installing a heater in our rain guage.  This will allow us to provide moisture content measurements for snowfall. 

Weather Outlook – Warm and Sun!

Melting snowmanThings are finally starting to look nice for us.  The recent series of storms is gone for us (and now wreaking havoc on the midwest) and we should be in for a nice week.  Temperatures should be in the mid to upper 40’s with clear and sunny skies all week.  Friday and heading into Saturday though could bring a change.  Current forecast models (below) show a chance for snowfall during that time period but of course this far out it is hard to say for sure.  Check back often for the latest! 

Precipitation Forecast for Saturday, 12/22

The snow is ending and the weekend should be nice.

ThorntonWeather.com recorded 8/10ths of an inch of snow so the system didn’t product much moisture. Lows Friday night will be down into the single digits. Saturday will be sunny and near freezing and Sunday we will finally truly warm up above 40 degrees. That may not last for too long though – long range forecasts show a chance for more snow toward the end of next week!

More snow on the way this evening – the third storm in a week.

SnowmanHere it comes again but this time won’t be as bad as the last two. This storm should move pretty quickly through the area tonight and into tomorrow morning. Current indications are we can expect between 1 and 4 inches of the white stuff. A lot of folks are already tired of the snow but remember that while the mountains have had a ton of snow, here on the Front Range we are still a good ways below normal for precipitation!

Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Snowy HouseAnother round of snow moved into the metro area last night making for pretty messy conditions. As of 6:00 this morning we have recorded 2.1″ of fresh snow in Thornton with more on the way. You can expect the white stuff to continue falling throughout the day with additional accumulations of 1″ to 3″.This of course is the second storm in less than a week to bring snow to us. It is hard to complain considering how dry we have been in recent weeks. The cause for the moisture? Two factors have helped:

One is the jetstream. We generally see moisture come our way when the jetstream has dipped south to off of the coast of Southern California / Baja California. If you take a look at our jet stream map, you will see that happening.

The second factor is the wind from the northeast. Heading into this past weekend’s storm, we weren’t expecting much because the wind was from the west northwest (called a downslope wind) which would have helped move the storm past quickly. Instead, the wind shifted from the northeast (an upslope wind). Upslope winds help to slow storms down and hold them in place against the mountains, thus resulting in greater snowfall for the metro area.

Until these storms move out, stay warm and stay safe!

Do as I say, not as I do. United Nations meeting on climate change will cause as much pollution as 20,000 cars in a year.

We found this amusing – a little tidbit from Bloomberg News:

Government officials and activists flying to Bali, Indonesia, for the United Nations meeting on climate change will cause as much pollution as 20,000 cars in a year.

The delegates each will produce an average 4.07 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or CO2, to reach the resort island 950 kilometers (600 miles) from Jakarta, according to estimates e- mailed to Bloomberg by the UN agency holding the conference.

You can read the news report by clicking here.

Weather, natural disasters & climate news and information.