2008 Montana Holiday Vacation Photos (Part IV)

This is the last set of photos from my trip. Don't worry, some are weather-oriented.


Trinity Methodist Church on North Main Street in Butte, Montana.


The Belmount Headframe on Mercury Street.


Turbulent clouds south of Manhattan, Montana on December 29th.


The sun beginning to set over the Big Horn Mountains, near Parkman, Wyoming.



Sunset fire over the Big Horn Mountains, south of Sheridan, Wyoming.

Dann.

Coming up soon: Photos from the New Year's Eve sunset and a 2008 weather and chasing year in review.

2008 Montana Holiday Vacation Photos (Part III)

Bell/Diamond Headframe


City of Butte (left), Granite Mountain Mine Memorial (center), Bell/Diamond Headframe (right)

Plane landing at Bert Mooney Airport.

Montain Con Headframe from Buffalo Street.


Snow flies over the city of Butte, from Buffalo Street.

Dann.

2008 Montana Holiday Vacation Photos (Part II)

My father making a trip between our house and the car.

The Travona Headframe at sunset on December 26th.

The Hotel Finlen, Uptown Butte on December 28th.

East Park Street and South Wyoming Street in Uptown Butte, Montana.

One of many painted wall advertisements in Uptown Butte.

Dann.

2008 Montana Holiday Vacation Photos (Part I)

Blowing snow outside of Livingston, Montana.


Elk near my grandmother's house on Christmas Day. (there are 4 in the picture)


Molly, my grandmother's Black Labrador.


Family portrait: My father, mother, sister, and myself.


My sister and mother walking along Little Basin Creek Road.

Dann.

To Wrestle The Wind

I'm back in Colorful Colorado. My trip to Montana was great. We had at least four different dendritic snowfall events including one on Christmas Day (talk about a "white" Christmas!)

Travel could have been a lot worse. On the way up, I only had to contend with wind in Wyoming (north of Cheyenne) and then again near Livingston, Montana (with blowing snow). The passes in south central Montana were snow packed but not icy. On the way back to Colorado, the snow ended in Butte just as I was leaving. The sun came out and made Homestake Pass slushy, but not slippery. The roads were dry after that and I only dealt with insane wind once south of Buffalo, Wyoming. Checking obs along the path, I was battling 30-50mph crosswinds at times! No wonder my arms are sore. There wasn't any blowing snow in Wyoming ... just blowing dust. It was very hard to see at times.

When I left Denver, it was cold. We had been battling inversions for almost the entire month of December. When I pulled up at my apartment this evening, the temperature was 55ºF with stiff southwesterly winds. Finally, some of the snow has had a chance to melt.


Anyway, that about wraps up the weather side of things. I took a lot of pictures but haven't had much time since being home (only an hour now) and really haven't gone through them. So, I'll share my favorite one since it came out well and I don't really have to do anything save for slapping a watermark on.


Bell/Diamond Mine (Gallows/Head) Frame
Butte-Silver Bow County, Montana
10:47PM MST December 28th, 2008
(click for larger image)

Dann.

Nature Is Go'n'a Get Ya'

Nothing ground-breaking to say today, so I'll let the pictures and video do the talking.

I stumbled upon the following graphic on AOL News yesterday and it gave me a little chuckle. There have been several other versions of this map published in the past 24 hours, but I think this is one of the more simple ones to look at and understand. It basically describes how likely you are to be "dead by nature" by region.




The cold air has moderated over the last couple of days. The storm system that brought snow to Las Vegas yesterday has also plowed over most of the west. Everybody seems to be getting snow. We have a few showers in the Denver area right now, but nothing to write home about.

The situation developing in the midwest and Ohio Valley should be interesting over the next few days. Death, destruction via ice and snow. Prepare for those headlines.

... but, the cold air will return to the northern Rockies as exemplified in this forecast pulled from the Butte, Montana NWS point forecast page.



Looking in on the warmer latitudes ...




Satellite image used with permission; courtesy of IPS Meteostar Inc.



On the lighter side, this was posted over on Storm Track today.


Weather Channel Accused of Pro-Weather Bias




UPDATE:
We just had a nice graupel shower a minute ago. I took some pictures but don't have my cable with me. Hopefully I'll have them up tomorrow.

UPDATE 2:
Quite the wave of showers that have just come off the mountains. We could be seeing some heavy snow with embedded small to moderately sized graupel. I wouldn't be all that surprised to see reports of thundersnow. Lightning is quiet for the time being, but I'll keep my eyes out.



Dann.

More Cold Than You Can Shake A Popcicle At

Well, how about another update on the cold?

-Denver tied a 111-year-old record by dropping to -8ºF this morning.

-Also, Butte, Montana crushed a record low maximum for December 15th at -9ºF. The previous record was 0ºF.

-The coldest spot in the nation this morning was Longville, Minnesota at -35ºF.

Select Montana minimums for December 16th:
-28º Jordan
-27º Cut Bank
-27º Wolf Point
-26º Glendive
-25º Glasgow
-24º Dillon
-24º Great Falls
-23º Lewistown
-22º Bozeman
-22º Butte
-22º Havre
-22º Sidney
-21º Baker
-20º Miles City
-17º Helena
-17º Malmstrom Air Force Base (Great Falls)
-17º Livingston
-16º Kalispell
-15º Billings
-15º Missoula

If the GFS verifies, we're looking at another cold weekend in the northern Rockies and adjacent plains.


And now, some pretty picture (click for larger) from contributors.

The first two are courtesy of Alan Clark of Rock Springs, Wyoming. Fantastic shots of halos and a moon dog. According to Alan, the pictures were 8 second exposures taken at 100 ISO. They were taken in Rock Springs at 6:30PM on December 11th. Thanks Alan!




The next photo comes from Cassie Robinson in Fargo, North Dakota. I believe it was taken early on the 15th.



Dann.