CBS4 Weather Blog

We had a snow and water shortage in the month of January. Normally, we should see around 7.7 inches of snow, this year Denver recieved only 2.6 inches of snow.

January 2010 came in tied  as the 6th driest  on record since 1972. The other month was January 1961. Here are the water stats: a normal January sees just a little over a half inch (.51") of liquid equivalent, this year only .07 inches from melted snow. That's .44 inches below normal or average.

However, overall for the season Denver is in good shape. We have seen 40.2 inches of snow which is 6.9 inches above normal for this point in time.

Happy February!

Although February can get cold in Denver, there is typically, not a lot of weather action to look forward to. On average the month is only Denver's 6th snowiest, averaging only 6.3 inches of snow. As far as stormy weather goes February is the 3rd quietest month behind September and October.

That being said, this month does get cold, the Mile High City has recorded a below freezing temperature on every day at one time or another.

The snowiest recorded February happened in 1912 with 22.1 inches. Last year, 2009, was the least snowiest on record with only a trace.

Let's hope the Groundhog doesn't see his shadow on Tuesday!

On February 2nd, Phil comes out of his burrow on Gobbler’s Knob, in front of thousands of faithful followers from all over the world, to predict the weather for the rest of the winter.   According to legend, if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather. If he does not see his shadow, there will be an early spring.

As the finishing touches are being applied to the Olympic venues, Whistler Blackcomb is celebrating a record 32.5 feet of snowfall to date this season. The ski resort, located two hours north of Vancouver, is ready for the games to begin.

As you can imagine deep snow at Whistler Blackcomb is nothing new, but getting so close to the average annual snowfall of  33 feet so early in the season is very unique. In fact, folks with Whistler say this is the first time that the ski resort has received this much snow by the end of January since snow reporting began in 1979. This beats the prior record by almost a couple of inches which was set during the 2006/07 season when 31 feet of snow fell by January 31.
View snow and weather stats.

Dave Brownlie, President and Chief Operating Officer of Whistler Blackcomb says "The resort is looking its best and the snow conditions on the mountains are incredible. We received great feedback from course inspectors last week, and the men's and women's courses are now fully in the hands of Olympic Organizing Committee." 

Tonight (Wednesday night) the red planet will make its closest approach of the year. But, the big, bright, view of Mars is happening on Friday the 29th. It's expected to be the best and brightest we have seen in two years.

You want to look in the eastern sky for a bright red-orange glowing dot. The planet will be in what astronomers call "opposition", meaning it lies opposite the sun in the night sky.

If you can stay up late on Friday the brightest illumination will be at midnight when the shine is a magnitude -1.2, brighter than every star except Sirius.

Again, Friday night, the 29th, look for magnificent Mars in the eastern sky.

While the southern and western mountain resorts are swimming in snow the dryspell over the central and northern mountains finally came to an end. The totals weren't anywhere near the feet of snow Silverton, Wolf Creek,Telluride or Steamboat received but at least they did get some fresh powder -here's a look at the snow totals over the past 48 hours

A-Basin        3"

Copper         7"

Eldora          1.5"

Loveland     6.5"

Winter Park   7"

Breckenridge    8"

Beaver Creek    4"

Looks like Colorado might stay on the storm track for the rest of the winter. The monthly long range climate maps from the Climate Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Maryland, are out. And they call for above normal precipitation for all of Colorado in the month of February. That could mean we might see a few good snows in the month. February is typically, a dry month it is only the 6^th snowiest with 6.3 inches of snow on average.

The longer range model that includes February, March, and April has all of eastern and southern Colorado above normal for precipitation. That could be significant for Denver, being that March and April are the 1^st and 3^rd snowiest months on average.

Good news for skiers and boarders ! Heavy snow is moving into the northern and central mountains. Could see 1 to 2 feet in some spots by Monday morning. Here are some of the numbers from southern Colorado in the last 24 hours, the San Juans got pounded with anywhere from 2 to 5+ feet of snow!

35" Molass Pass
43" Coal Bank Pass
24" Durango
24" Silverton
24" Pagosa Springs
18" Cedar Point
18" Lizard Head Pass
15" Telluride
10" Cedar Edge
10" Lewis
8.5" Gothic

When it comes to predicting winter storms’ developing over the North Pacific Ocean the data has been somewhat limited in the past, but forecasters will soon be getting a little extra help from a hurricane hunter aircraft. NOAA’s Gulfstream IV will be collecting data over the Pacific Ocean to improve winter storm forecasts in the future for the entire North American continent through improved computer modeling. 

The aircraft will be tasked by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction — a division of NOAA’s National Weather Service — to fly into data sparse regions to collect information such as wind speed and direction, pressure, temperature and humidity. This data will be sent via satellite to global operational weather forecasting centers — and fed into sophisticated computer forecast models.

The goal of these flights will be to better predict future conditions across the U.S. and Canada three to six days in advance,” said Louis Uccellini, Ph.D., director of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction in Camp Springs, Md.

These computer model improvements will play an essential role in meteorological support for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in addition to more precise precipitation forecasts along the U.S. West Coast and points further east.

Prior to 2009, missions were flown from Alaska, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast. By expanding the reach across the International Date Line to Japan, NOAA is essentially pushing farther upstream to observe areas of interest with greater lead times.

These missions showed significant positive impact to global numerical weather prediction models, increasing both accuracy and lead times for high-impact weather events. For example, model forecasts of precipitation amounts improved, on average, 10 to 15 percent.

Have you seen some of the rain and snow totals from California so far this week? The barrage of winter thunderstorms is leaving record amounts of rain and snow from California into Arizona and New Mexico. Some areas have had over TEN INCHES OF RAIN since last Sunday night. And as much as 6 FEET OF SNOW in the Sierra Nevada's. To put that into perspective we only average around 15 inches of rain a year in Denver. And near 61 inches of snow.

Rainfall Report from National Weather Service as of Wednesday night.

California

BARTLETT SPRINGS: 10.40
LYTLE CREEK: 8.66
CLOVERDALE: 8.55
LAKE ARROWHEAD: 7.23
UKIAH MUNI ARPT: 6.63
SANTA ROSA/SONOMA CO. ARPT: 5.52
VAN NUYS AIRPORT: 5.25
LONG BEACH AIRPORT: 5.02
BURBANK-GLENDALE-PASADENA ARPT: 4.38
SANTA ANA/JOHN WAYNE ARPT: 4.12
SAN LUIS OBISPO CO ARPT: 4.06
SAN DIEGO/MONTGOMERY FIELD: 3.48
SAN FRANCISCO INTL ARPT: 3.44
SACRAMENTO METRO ARPT: 3.39
LOS ANGELES-USC: 3.24

Snowfall report from the National Weather Service

California

CHAGOOPA PLATEAU: 73.6
SUGAR BOWL: 49.0
KIRKWOOD: 48.0
BOREAL: 46.0
SODA SPRINGS: 46.0
SIERRA AT TAHOE: 39.0
JUNE LAKE: 36.0
GIANELLI MEADOWS: 33.0
QUAKING ASPEN: 32.7
KINGVALE: 31.0

Arizona

SUNRISE MOUNTAIN: 22.0
(near) FLAGSTAFF: 21.4
FLAGSTAFF AIRPORT: 17.4

Emergency responders in Haiti now have help in assessing damage and planning recovery efforts. The help comes in new super high resolution images of the earthquake striken country, thanks to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

NOAA is the arm of the government that  runs the National Weather Service and monitors our climate both on land and in our oceans. On of the ways they do this is with jet aircraft with remote sensing equipment , including high-resolution digital cameras.

NOAA'S Cessna Citation II is a twin-engine jet that has been flying over Haiti the last few days taking pictures of the quake zone. They are now teaming up with Google providing before and after aerial pictures to help in the recovery efforts.

Haiti Presidential Palace (before/after)




Port-au-Prince's 3-star Hotel Christopher (before/after)

Here is a with more information.

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100119_haiti.html