Monsoon

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

https://climate.colostate.edu/co_nam.html

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.

 https://999thepoint.com/colorado-flood-washes-out-highway-34-pictures/

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.

A Ramble II

A classic Albuquerque Low weather pattern going on right now. This one is bringing a shit load of snow. At the moment it has almost stalled. If this was summer, the rising heat from the High Plains would produce thunderstorms stalled above the Front Range. Note the moisture being pulled up from Texas. This is meeting colder moisture moving in from the Pacific. Add rising heat from the High Plains and you get the epic floods mentioned in "A Ramble".

Cheery news from the National Weather Service.

http://www.weather.gov/gjt/StrongMidAprilStorm

Potential good news for downstream water users. Hopefully Nebraska and Kansas won't get their ten year share in two weeks. They whine so loud when that happens.

Remember, in Colorado, "Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting".

A Ramble

A low income project in what passes for a ghetto in this small Northern Colorado city. In 2014 this was under water. Seems we have "1,000 Year", "500 Year" and "100 Year" floods every two to three years.

An "Albuquerque Low" forms in New Mexico. As the winds circulate around it, moisture is carried to the East Side of the Colorado Front Range where it meets winds from the West and North and more Pacific moisture. The system stalls and the rains fall. Then we get floods from hell.

Naturally, urban planners know this but approved a subsidized low income project where there was standing water in 2014.

There has been not a single flood control measure taken since 2014 on the Cache La Poudre river.

The housing is needed. Low income subsidized housing will, I fear, only increase the problems of gangs and crime in that area. Oh well, it is off the beaten path the gentry take.

One nice part of my part time job are nice sunrises in Wyoming.

Most folks don't associate Wyoming with fog - wrong. Along the Laramie Rivers and the North Platte it can get close to zero visibility. The first 40 miles or so North of Cheyenne can reduced your speed to the 30 mph range. So, blizzards in the winter, fog in the summer. Spring? Just a lull between blizzards or so it seems. We've had a wet enough winter that we should have a "green" Wyoming this summer. Folks who live there, or have lived there, will know what I mean.

Obama's war on coal is producing long lines at food banks in Gillette, something locals can't remember ever happening. Too bad the S.C.O.A.M.F. can't make war on ISIS with the same efficiency his administration does on the domestic energy business. 

Recently added another vehicle to the household, a 1987 Bronco II. Living large as the Mitsubishi is a 1986. Must learn to pace myself.

Yes, some body cancer in the doors. Near as we can tell about 104,000 miles. Too many indicators the miles aren't 204,000. 2.9 V-6, 4WD, 5 speed, good clutch, working cruise control and cold A/C.  Getting into the habit of spending money like a politician as I paid $800 for it after some minor fixes. Time will tell is WSF was a fool.

Foothills Flooding. Did You Ignore The Clues?

The last few years here along the Front Range in Colorado have been filled with disasters. First, wildfires, and now an epic flood.  While one can feel compassion for those affected, in the background is the question, “What did you expect? Did you not think through all the factors involved in foothills living?” Obvious answer for most is no.

As a child, my father was a section foreman on the old Denver and Rio Grande railroad. We moved often and lived, at various times, in several foothill locations, Plainview, Pinecliff, Rollinsville, and East Portal.

My parents were children of the Great Depression and had close to “The Grapes of Wrath” life growing up. They were preppers long before the term became common. I clearly remember my father backing up a pickup to the front door of an Arvada, CO grocery store and filling it. This happened two to three times a year. That store manager liked to see us. Quite often our neighbors would accompany us for the same reasons.

When we moved to a new place, my parents focused on four things. First, water. Where did it come from? How dependable was the source? Second, fire hazards. None of these places was big enough to have a fire department, even a volunteer department. Third, heat for the winter. Fourth, access in and out. My parents also believed in the old West saying, “High, Dry, and Windy.”

So you want the mountain lifestyle. You move to an area that has a history of embedded thunderstorms dropping rain in huge amounts (recently, Boulder received 17”). Your only access is a two lane road along side a stream running through a narrow canyon. You can easily see the stumps of fire killed trees from an earlier era. You ignore the volumes of information on making your homestead more fire resistant. You don’t store any water. You have maybe ten days of food on hand. You have no alternative way of heating or cooking, except that decorative fireplace for which you have a few bundles of split softwood for fuel. You are probably in the upper socioeconomic scale as mountain property, and living,  is expensive. So what are you excuses for not being prepared?

 Ever think of some of the other hazards?

Now your life is turned upside down. Good luck with your insurance as you probably didn’t buy flood insurance.

I need to stop kicking people who are down. Hubris is doing a fine job on it’s own.

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