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!

Leonard Frieling
  • Senior Counsel Emeritus to the Boulder Law firm Dolan + Zimmerman LLP : (720)-610-0951
  • Former Judge
  • Photographer of the Year, AboutBoulder 2023
  • First Chair and Originator of the Colorado Bar Association’s Cannabis Law Committee, a National first.
  • Previous Chair, Boulder Criminal Defense Bar (8 years)
  • Twice chair Executive Counsel, Colorado Bar Association Criminal Law Section
  • NORML Distinguished Counsel Circle
  • Life Member, NORML Legal Committee
  • Life Member, Colorado Criminal Defense Bar
  • Board Member Emeritus, Colorado NORML
  • Chair, Colorado NORML, 7 years including during the successful effort to legalize recreational pot in Colorado
  • Media work, including episodes of Fox’s Power of Attorney, well in excess of many hundreds media interviews, appearances, articles, and podcasts, including co-hosting Time For Hemp for two years.
  • Board member, Author, and Editor for Criminal Law Articles for the Colorado Lawyer, primary publication of the Colorado Bar Assoc. 7 Years, in addition to having 2 Colorado Lawyer cover photos, and numerous articles for the Colorado Lawyer monthly publication.
  • LEAP Speaker, multi-published author, University lectures Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, Denver University Law School, Univ. of New Mexico, Las Vegas NM, and many other schools at all levels.
  • http://www.Lfrieling.com
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