Boulder Blizzard? Definitely Not! Maybe.
Weak Fern Wall. ? pic Lenny Lensworth Frieling
Boulder Blizzard Imminent? Perhaps not. What’s missing? For one, a nicely defined long “fern wall.” This hot dog shaped cloud runs North and South between the Front Range and the Continental Divide. To me, fhis possible fern wall, to this fool’s eyes, looks weak and disorganized. Perhaps that indicates a weaker storm.
Our biggest storms are almost always “upslope” snow storms. That means that instead of the storm coming down the front range from the North, it circles into the Front Range. Then it gets stuck, with nowhere to go. So, like the rest of us, it stays in Boulder. And it can stay for an unpredictable amount of time dumping unpredictable amounts of snow.
The weather map is wrong for an “upslope” major snowstorm. Or is it?
The first weather map shows a front, the top blue line, (a cold front), going pretty straight across the middle of the weather map. That is not an upslope front. The upslope front is “L” shaped, but you have to rotate the “L” 1/4 turn, 90 degrees, to the right.
Straight Line Cold Front is the Blue Line Across the Middle of the Map.
Strong Fern Wall , Unlike Today’s Mountain Clouds pic Lenny Lensworth Frieling
That was the map late this morning. Not an upslope. BUT tonight, the shape of the front and the type of the front is changing. It is looking MORE like an upslope map.
The blue line, the front, is now “occluded,” or mixed, and the familiar right turned “L” shape is developing. The wind is still from the West, not an upslope direction. SO I am certain that I have no idea what this storm is going to do, or whether or not it will be an upslope.
Fortunately we have MONGO! Mongo is our snowblower, our Boulder Special.
Usual snowblower safety practices are totally inadequate for Mongo. For better or worse, it also operates on bluetooth off our cellphones. We can sit in the front room and run Mongo around the neighborhood. So, our blizzard prep is to fill Mongo’s gas tank with 40 gallons of jet fuel and we’re set!
Miami’s Famed South Beach MONGO
Mongo South Beach or Mongo the snowblower? This is Boulder. Only fools and tourists predict the weather!
Lenny Lensworth Frieling
Shared Mongo is Power!