Posts Tagged ‘weather’

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Thunderstorm

Posted in Generalon Jun 7, 2009

A nice little thunderstorm blew through part of Fort Collins today while Sandy and I were at church.  It rained and hailed a lot.  Driving, home, we saw some pretty good accumulations of hail (up to pea size) and some deep water that just couldn’t drain fast enough.  Take a look at some of the pictures we snapped on the way home.

College and Prospect Intersection. Lots of hail

College and Prospect Intersection. Lots of hail

Deep Water

Deep Water

Water so deep that I'd call it a river

Water so deep that I'd call it a river

Storm drain can't drain fast enough.

Storm drain can't drain fast enough.

Spring snow storms

Posted in Technicalon Apr 16, 2009

I’ve had a couple of people ask my why there seems to be a greater snowfall in Colorado during March and early April than during the heart of the Winter in December and January. Fort Collins receives an average of 12.4 inches of snow in March, compared to only 7.1 inches in December.

Warm air can hold more water than cold air. Anyone who has experienced a hot and muggy day knows this. Also, warmer temperatures are more likely to evaporate more water into the air.

Snow requires cold air, so that the moisture that comes out of clouds is frozen instead of just rain.

The most snow fall comes when warm moist air with lots of water combines with cold frozen air that causes snow. This is most likely to occur during early spring months. During winter, the air is too cold on average to hold lots of water, and during summer, the air is too warm to cause it to snow. In the spring months in between, there are just the right amounts of both to make it snow more.

March 27, 2009. NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team

March 27, 2009. NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team

The follow up question asks why it doesn’t rain more in the summer if warm air holds more water. Much of the warmer air is warm enough to hold onto the water causing it not to rain. If, however, the air is cooled, then water can fall out of those warm clouds as rain, just like squeezing a sponge.

Record heat

Posted in Generalon Jan 21, 2009

Fort Collins this week is having a nice little January heat wave.  Record high temperatures are reported and predicted this week, according to a Coloradoan.com article. Yesterday we hit 70 degrees, which was a new record.  Today is also suppose to be the same, also breaking a record.  This sort of heat is bound to quite global warming critics.  I’ve very much enjoyed the weather, mostly because it allowed me to more easily fix my car.

But don’t worry too much, because this is Colorado after all.  Snow is predicted Thursday night and Friday.  And that is the way it goes.  70 degrees one day, snow the next.

A few less interesting things

Posted in Lifeon Jan 12, 2009

I thought I would make a list of a few of the uninteresting things on my mind this morning:

  • I was surprised to wake up and see snow.  I need to pay more attention to the forecast because I didn’t see it coming.
  • I wore my scarf to work, and I liked it.
  • I got a sample box of MultiGrain Cheerios with my newspaper yesterday.  I think I’m going to eat them for breakfast, but since I’m already at work, I’m going to have to eat them dry.
  • I got to work an hour early today so that I could turn in a report early before anyone finds that it is missing.
  • Saturday night I only got 4 hours of sleep, and then didn’t get any nap on Sunday.
  • Last night I got 7 hours of sleep (12am to 7am) and I probably won’t get a nap today.  Tonight I must get a full 8 hours.
  • Why is it that weekends are more exhausting even though they are suppose to be relaxing? It reminds me of the hurry up and relax mentality.
  • I finished watching the first season of 24 last night.  The last few episodes of the season were about to expire from Hulu, so I thought I would hurry up and watch them.   I’ve seen all the other seasons, but I had never completed seeing the first season, so it was great to get caught up.
  • But there wasn’t ever a moment of being caught up with watching 24, because even as I was watching the old episodes, new episodes were being aired on TV.
  • I wasn’t thrilled with the ending of the first season, because it seemed that they intentionally mislead viewers throughout the whole season.  I’m okay with shows that throw twists into the plot, but not when they purposely try hard to get the viewers to believe one thing only to have the opposite be true.  This was the case with Nina Meyers being a mole in CTU.  Of course, I knew she was because I saw all the later episodes, but I didn’t like how hard they worked all season long to make it look like she wasn’t.  As a curious person, I like to be given little clues so I can try to figure it out myself, but instead the producers gave little clues that she was a dedicated agent, and then surprise she isn’t.  I think it would have been more interesting if I were to watch the season, having pre-knowledge that she was a bad agent, to see little indications of it that you wouldn’t pick up on without the pre-knowledge.  Ok, enough of that soap box.
  • Happy Birthday Lori, if you read this.
  • I was suppose to bring the last of my homemade pizza into work to eat for lunch, but I forgot.
  • I’ve been trying to get Boxee working on one of my computers, but every time I launch it, it seems unbearably slow (and the graphics seemed pretty messed up).  I think that maybe if I get the 3d proprietary graphics drivers working, then maybe it will work better as well.

Weather in Fort Collins

Posted in Generalon Mar 7, 2008

One thing I like about the weather in Fort Collins is that the actual current temperatures can actually be higher than the high for the day. Right now, for example, it is 55 degrees, even though Google only said the high was going to be 42.

Tomorrows predicted high is higher than todays predicted high, I wonder if that means that tomorrow will be warmer than it was today, which would be nice because I want to go hiking tomorrow.

Ham radio heroes in Oregon

Posted in Technicalon Dec 6, 2007

I’m from Oregon, and I’ve heard from my family about the recent storms and floods there. I’m also a ham radio operator, so when I read on slashdot how ham radio saved the day, I got excited. I remember 12 years ago being one of those ham radio operators helping out with emergency communications, and I remember listening in to the communications going out to Vernonia, Oregon and wishing that I could do more.

Storm Seeking

Posted in Religionon Oct 9, 2007

Here is a thought provoking quote I came across today:

I am asking that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight

–President Hinckley


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