Gatherings, A Snowy Surprise, and Flooding in Fiji

It's been pretty quiet here for the last week except for one event, but I'll get to that later. I'm honestly a little sad that I was unable to attend the American Meteorological Society National Conference this week in Phoenix. I have gone the last two years in a row and while both trips were very different from each other, each were amazing. On par with the National Storm Chaser Convention, to me it is a meeting of the minds; a large gathering of peers. I know that fun was had by all and I'm sure there were some great presentations.

Speaking of the National Storm Chaser Convention, it is here in Denver over President's Day weekend (February 14th-16th). I will be attending for my fourth year in a row, even more convenient now that I only live about three miles away from the hotel/convention center. I have become much more social the storm chasing populace in general in the last year thanks to Storm Track, SpotterChat, and social networking sites. I look forward to meeting some of the amazing people that I've met digitally. The agenda for this year's convention is posted here. This, however, will be the first year that I will pay full price for the convention. In years previous, I had negotiated a deal with the organizers to allow students of the Metro State AMS club (S.C.A.M.S.) get in for half price. The registration fee isn't too bad, so I'll be able to make it without a problem. It is only a month away now and I'm getting very excited. Having the convention in my sights proves that the season is just around the corner. It has been too long since I have been out under one ... too long.

I'm also looking forward to this month's CONVERGENCE! meeting which is scheduled for Saturday, January 31st. If you're reading this blog, consider yourself invited. We'll be at Old Chicago in Downtown Denver (14th St./Market St.) at 8PM on Saturday, the 31st. Each gathering before has been a lot of fun, so I'm really looking forward to this one!

Now, onto the weather. We've been in the ridge-West, trough-East pattern for as long as I can remember. I'm ready for some change! Right now, very cold air is creeping along the northern Great Plains. Right now, it's -38ºF in Estevan, Saskatchewan. There is a -35ºF reading in Fosston, Minnesota as well. Now, if the GFS hold true, next week there will be a change coming. Now don't get me wrong, I'm looking foward to the next five days of downsloping 50's and 60's here in Denver, but the ridge seems to break down in the long term, a trough crashing into the West Coast. Bring it!

Like I said, it has been fairly quiet here. We've pretty much endured a swinging pendulum of warm downslope days and cold, post-clipper-frontal days. We're experience the latter as I type. On Monday, though, there was a bit of a surprise. I remember reading the forecast discussions on Saturday and Sunday. The weather was expected, but to paraphrase, "like last time, we don't believe we'll see much if any precipitation from this event."

I woke up Monday morning to four and a half inches of snow. Surprise! Here is a snow map from the day:

Image from NWS Denver.

We get one of those every once in a while here in Denver ... the surprise snow storms. I recall last year getting ready to see a Chicago Blackhawks / Colorado Avalanche game when all of the sudden, a crazy, unexpected, unforecast snow storm erupted. We must have received 4-5 inches in an hour or two. I took the following picture from my then girlfriend's apartment downtown. (January 30th, 2008)


Finally, we'll take a look at the tropics. It is very quiet right now save for one small area of interest. The seemingly innocuous 90P Invest has actually caused a great deal of flooding in Fiji. News story here: CLICK


Satellite imagery used with permission; courtesy of IPS Meteostar Inc. Click for larger images.


Dann.

January 9th Sunset in Denver - Dongo & Charlotte Info

Here are the promised January 9th Denver sunset photos:













Tropical cyclone activity, as of January 11th:


06S Dongo: The storm continues to weaken, drifting to the south-southeast slowly. It was weakened considerably from this time yesterday.

07P Charlotte: This tiny cyclone has made landfall and is weakening, the remnants drifting to the east-southeast.

Satellite imagery used with permission; courtesy of IPS Meteostar Inc. Click for larger images.


Dann.

January 7th Sunset In Denver - Dongo & Charlotte

The zonal pattern this time of year always seems to lead to fantastic wave cloud setups ... and thus gorgeous sunsets. Here are a few pictures from the January 7th event.

(At the bottom ... and update on Dongo & Charlotte)















I saved this image a week ago to include in the blog and forgot about it. It was more of a reflex than anything ... and you can tell that I'm excited for the severe weather season. Hello 2009.




And finally, a look at the tropics:

06S Dongo continues to drift southward into substantially colder waters.


07P Charlotte was being named just as I'm putting this blog together. She's moving slowly to the east and south in the Gulf of Carpentaria. This is a really small system and very and hugging the Australian coast.


Satellite imagery used with permission; courtesy of IPS Meteostar Inc. Click for larger images.


COMING SOON: Images from the January 9th sunset!

Dann.

Dongo!

Not much to talk about weather-wise locally at the moment. We've cooled down from the 60's here in Denver to the mid-30's with frontal passage this morning. The winds are howling out of the north at 25-30kt. There was a little elevated convection behind the front today, nice to see some instability in the air again. We're getting close to THE season ...


We also have a new tropical cyclone in the South Indian Ocean right now. Welcome to Dongo (06S). It's rather disorganized at the moment and not expected to strengthen much.





Satellite imagery used with permission; courtesy of IPS Meteostar Inc. Click for larger images.


Dann.

Fanning The Flames

Given how big a story the Old Stage Road Fire has been, I figured I'd show you all some of the wind reports from that morning and early afternoon. Another crazy day of 100+mph winds!

THE WIND!!!

0201 PM NON-TSTM WND GST 3 S EVERGREEN 39.59N 105.34W
01/07/2009 M92.00 MPH JEFFERSON CO TRAINED SPOTTER

1202 PM NON-TSTM WND GST 7 WNW BERTHOUD 40.35N 105.21W
01/07/2009 M85.00 MPH LARIMER CO TRAINED SPOTTER

0806 AM NON-TSTM WND GST 6 NW BOULDER 40.09N 105.33W
01/07/2009 M87.00 MPH BOULDER CO TRAINED SPOTTER

0704 AM NON-TSTM WND GST EVERGREEN 39.63N 105.34W
01/07/2009 M85.00 MPH JEFFERSON CO TRAINED SPOTTER

0400 AM NON-TSTM WND GST 3 S MT AUDUBON 40.06N 105.62W
01/07/2009 M107 MPH BOULDER CO MESONET ELEVATION 12,2640 FEET

0332 AM NON-TSTM WND GST BERTHOUD PASS 39.80N 105.78W
01/07/2009 M101 MPH CLEAR CREEK CO MESONET

The Tropics:
The Southern Hemisphere has become more active in the past 24 hours. The JTWC is expecting the invest in the Indian Ocean to form into a tropical cyclone in the next 12-24 hours.

Satellite imagery used with permission; courtesy of IPS Meteostar Inc. Click for larger images.


I'll try and get some sunset pics up soon. We had another wave cloud sunset tonight ... so lots of photos to edit!

Dann.

Kelvin-Helmholtz Waves, January 6th

I remember promising pictures of the K-H waves from yesterday. They're not that great ... in fact, the waves were much more pronounced before I could get back to the office and get my camera, but you get the idea. The first and third photos the where the K-H waves had "broke" and the middle image is of some minor waves in the cirrus wave.






... and coming soon, I took at least thirty pictures of the sunset tonight. Aside from crazy winds that fanned a wildfire and caused property damage all along the Front Range, a beautiful wave cloud set up. Well, it was beautiful at sunset. :)

Dann.

Tuesday, January 6th Update

Not much too exciting going on out there right now. There is a tornado watch in Mississippi and Alabama right now and a couple warnings have been issued. These look to be spinups or supercellular segments in the line of storms pushing through. I wouldn't be too excited to chase these storms as if they do produce, chances are the tornadoes will be shrouded in rain. Compound that with the low cloud bases and the tree-cover, and it wouldn't be too fun. Nw would I be out if I lived down there? You bet I would!

Elsewhere, the Northwest continues to get battered with system after system. They may see a little break later this week and might catch a quick glimpse of the sun. In Alaska, it is very cold right now. This cold air will probably be blocked from reaching the lower 48, but we may see a brief intrusion in the Great Lakes region. The west looks to remain ridged with a few impulses riding over the top.

Here in Colorado, this means wind and downslope warmth in the short term. A weak surface boundary make work down the Front Range toward the weekend cooling us off a little, but pattern won't change much in the next week.

On a walk today, I saw some great Kelvin-Helmholtz Waves over the Front Range. Unfortunately, I had left the camera in the office. When I got back, I ran outside and took a few shots, but they weren't quite as intense. I hope to have those pics up soon.

Finally, a look at the tropics:

Still looking pretty quiet right now. There are a couple areas of interest in the West Pacific and the South Indian, but none look favorable for rapid development at the moment.





Satellite imagery used with permission; courtesy of IPS Meteostar Inc. Click for larger images.


Dann.