Sunday, July 26, 2020

Monsoon


About two weeks later than usual, our summer “monsoon” has started. Here is a better explanation than any I can pen.



Some years we get hammered when the weather pattern is strong and gets jammed against the Front Range. Flooding in the slot canyons can cause loss of lives and wash out roads. As an example, Highway 34 from Loveland to Estes Park was washed out in places in 2017 and not open until Spring of 2018. Piddling, compared to 2013. Then there was July 31, 1976 when some 176 deaths were recorded.

So far this year it has been the High Plains that caught it, 12” of rain overnight in some places. The Union Pacific tracks near Wray, CO/Hagler,NE was washed out.

Here, the forecast is for another five days or so of high humidity. I find it strange to see clouds moving from south to north.

Depending on winds aloft around high and low pressure in the atmosphere, we may escape with just a few days of “being in the South” or, get hammered.

My friends west of the Divide are getting some much needed rain out of this pattern. In my youth, putting up hay in the summer, the monsoon could pose real problems. Now, it complicates walking the dog.

Tis a privileged to live in Colorado. Don’t like the weather? Wait a few days.

12 comments:

drjim said...

34 in and out of Estes Park always seems to get clobbered a lot.

I remember the in-laws talking about it being washed out several times.

Coffeypot said...

I went to the link and decided it was too much to read without violence and sex included. So I just surmised that it rains a lot peridolacy in your area.

Well Seasoned Fool said...

DRJIM
34 more than most.

CP
Our climate is semi desert except for the monsoon.

Old NFO said...

Enjoy the rain. We're getting piddling drops around here.

Well Seasoned Fool said...

1-3" would be welcome. Just enough last night into this morning to dirty the windshield.

LSP said...

Please send a bit of rain our way...

Luiz Gomes said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LL said...

We've had rain but not 12" that's a pretty significant downpour.

Well Seasoned Fool said...

LL
Seems to ocur somewhere in the region on a semi regular basis (withing a ten year span).

Anonymous said...

I'm in the Texas Panhandle, and it seems like the months got flipped this year. We had August in June and early July, and now are having June's nightly storms from the NM monsoon.

LittleRed1

Greybeard said...

Ninety-plus with humidity about 80% here in So. IL.
We call it "the air you wear". Funny how quickly people forget we had it last year; the year before that, and the year before that too. I wonder... do they just want to be frightened and attribute it to "climate change"?
I "wear" this air just fine. In January when it's below 20F and the wind is blowing 20 mph here that I'm damned glad I'm in Phoenix, and thank the Lord we have the $$$$ to live as we do.

Well Seasoned Fool said...

GB
I don't do well in heat or heat + humidity. Winter doesn't bother me other than sharing the roads with people who aren't up to driving on them. I will admit to finding weeks of sub zero temps tiring.