Storms

After the storm clears...

The Weather Outside...

Is PERFECT!

My SIL just posted photos on her blog that were full of vibrant colors of fall - crisp leaves everywhere. I'm guessing that photo wasn't taken too long ago. When I saw what she has recently been seeing outside in her region of the country I was a bit surprised. I guess I figured it must feel like winter is solidly here to everybody right about now, but that's just silly of me. Regardless, I'm happy with what I'm seeing outside in my neck of the woods.

Yay - It's Here!

Around here we usually get our last snowfall of the season in May and our first snowfall of the season in October. We're 4 days into October now and I've already been chomping at the bit for our first snowfall. I woke up this morning to a light blanket of snow everywhere. Woo hoo! I was delighted. Of course it will melt here at our house quickly, but not so in the mountains and that's the most important part. 

Another Wild Spring in CO

As is typical in Colorado during spring, the weather is having an identity crisis. Earlier this week the weather plummeted from a warm and lovely 70 degrees down to 15 degrees in less than 24 hours. We received just shy of a foot of snow and other parts of the state enjoyed "thunder snow", ping pong sized hail and tornadoes.

Hot Sulphur Springs

After cross-country skiing last week, Mr X and I drove a short distance to Hot Sulphur Springs to soak or tired muscles. It was 3 degrees when we got there. We've been to these springs before in the summer. Most of the pools were too hot for me back then but this time, due to the incredibly cold temperatures, I could soak in even the hottest pools. While we soaked in a pool our flip flops would literally freeze where they sat next to the pool. Our wet hair froze in mere seconds on contact with the cold air so we kept having to periodically get our hair wet so it wasn't a block of ice on our heads. Anybody that walked from pool to pool was engulfed in a billowing cloud of steam en route to their next hot pool of choice. It was rather amusing to watch. We soaked in various pools for nearly an hour and a half before we decided to head home. It was a great end to our day. (And just for the record, it was -1 when we left the hot springs.) 

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

The weather here has indeed been frightful - but only in the sense that it's been bone dry and winter weather has been severely lacking, much to my disappointment. I really have no use for cold weather unless it comes with snow - I love the snow. One of my all-time favorite things is a White Christmas. Right now it feels as if we may have a Brown Christmas. But there are still a few days left and I continue to be hopeful.

Our First Snowfall of the Season

Mr X and I awoke this morning to our first snowfall of the season. Snow wasn't in the forecast until this Saturday so it was a lovely surprise. This will all melt, of course, because the high today is going to be around 46. Tomorrow night we're supposed to have a low of 17 degrees. Sometimes I think that if you blink here you might miss fall, it's so short-lived. But I also love the snow and I'm looking forward to more of it. The ski resorts started making snow this week. I guess most of them are hoping to be opening within a month. I can't wait!

(The photos were taken using my phone since our camera is out being cleaned.)

First Snow in the Mountains

A couple of weeks ago we got a pretty respectable amount of rain over the course of a few days. While it was rain down here, it translated to snow in the higher mountains. Mr X had been browsing online at www.onthesnow.com, just because and he came across photos of the snowy peaks. Here they are for your viewing pleasure:



This is Copper Mountain - one of the places our season passes will be taking us this winter. Those orange splotches are the aspens.

 

More Copper Mountain.

This is Crested Butte. We went to this place once last year. It was fantastic.

This is Aspen. We have yet to try this place out. It's on our list of things to do.

My First 14er: Mt Bierstadt

There are 53 mountain peaks in the state of Colorado that are above 14,000 feet - the most of any other state in the continental US. This past Saturday Mr X and I climbed our first 14er. We meant to have a go at one last summer but somehow time got away from us. Our goal was to do one a year. This summer we need to do two to catch up. Some of these hikes can be pretty grueling so we chose the easiest one on which to start. Mt Bierstadt: 14,060 feet.  The trail head starts at 11,669 feet and so the elevation gain is only 2,850 feet - not bad at all.

This photo is from the parking lot. That rounded peak in the distance was our ultimate destination.

Me almost there!

Mr X at the top with a gorgeous view in the background.

This is a regular shot of one section of that panorama.



I took this picture just to show you how many other people were doing this climb as well. Way too many - that was the only crummy part of this hike.



This is the marker on at the highest point.

We started our hike at 6:30 in the morning, which was smart because we found out later that apparently that afternoon the weather got a bit crummy and a tornado was even spotted near one of the neighboring peaks (Mt Evans, also a 14er). I'm glad we weren't still up there to witness that but I also kind of wish we were, just to see it. But we might have been struck by lightening and killed so I'm more glad we weren't there. 90% glad, 10% bummed we missed it.

Rocky Mountain High

Last Thursday evening Mr X and I attended a John Denver Tribute concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison Colorado. It was great. Mr X is a huge John Denver fan. While I quite like a lot of his songs I'm nowhere near the fan Mr X is. I've been wanting to attend a concert at Red Rocks since the first time I saw the venue and this was a great opportunity.

This is a view of Red Rocks from inside the venue.

  

This is an aerial shot.

I saw this shot online and was joking with a coworker that this might be what it looks like for our concert because we'd been having severe thunderstorms all day. Turns out I wasn't far off - although the rain stayed off our backs we did end up having a delightful light show in the distance while we watched/listened to the concert. It was spectacular.

Wacky Weather

You get two posts from me today. This second one is very impromptu because the weather just went nuts here today. I guess a tornado watch was issued for our area, which is rare. Then we had the biggest size hail I've ever seen come down. It was so loud and I wondered if the skylights were going to break because of it. I've heard of hail being golf ball sized, etc, but I've never seen it much larger than BB sized.

Check this out:



This was our hummingbird feeder. The force of the hail ripped off the bottom part and sent red hummingbird juice everywhere.

 

This is what April Showers look like in Colorado

After the Storm

These are photos of the after-effects of the storm that hit Denver when I was supposed to be flying back from Philadelphia. Since my flight was cancelled because of the weather in Colorado I missed most of the storm but I got back in time to see the beautiful results: 





This is our bottom floor patio - you can't really tell but that mound of snow was about chest high.



A White Christmas Indeed

It started snowing here yesterday around 3pm. It hasn't stopped yet. This morning I shoveled the walk and driveway for Mr X while he was getting ready so he could go to work. It took a really long time. It's been 3 hours since I cleared the paths and driveway and there's already nearly another 4 inches again. I guess I'll have to re-shovel for my lunch break. I don't mind because I enjoy shovelling snow. I LOVE the snow.

It is SO quiet here because of all of the muffling snow. And so pristine-looking as well. I think I should go snow shoeing.

UPDATE: As of 11 am we had 32 inches and counting.