Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Colorado's December blizzard is third-largest since 1913
By Nicole Danna
Colorado Daily (U. Colorado)
01/05/2007

(U-WIRE) BOULDER, Colo. — According to Bob Glancy, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service, Colorado's Dec. 21 blizzard, which dumped 26 inches in Boulder, was the city's third-largest snowfall since a December blizzard in 1913.

Nearly a century ago, a Dec. 5, 1913 blizzard left behind 33 inches of snow over the course of two days, just about three inches more than the Oct. 25 blizzard of 1997, which had a total accumulation of 29.8 inches.

"Typically, what's unusual is you don't see that many heavy snowfalls this late in the year," said Glancy, of the 2006 storms, which came back to back.

In Colorado, Glancy said the Denver metro area generally sees heavier snowfall amounts in the fall and the spring, and not the dead of winter.

"So the chances of [having another blizzard] in the coming months are relatively low throughout January and February. Our snowfall will usually pick up again in March."

So how did so much moisture make its way into Colorado during what is considered the area's "dry" season.

Glancy said high-moisture storms that move across the south this time of year will continue on a southerly course, missing the state of Colorado. However, in the spring, moisture is able to make its way further north.

"And then you have a better chance of a storm or lots of moisture," said Glancy, who added the catalyst for the blizzard of 2006 was, in part, due to the El Nino effect.

El Nino is a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon from major temperature fluctuations in surface waters of the tropical Eastern Pacific Ocean. The name, from the Spanish for "child," refers to the Christ child, because the phenomenon is usually noticed around Christmas time in the Pacific Ocean.

"With this [past] blizzard, moisture was pulled up from the Gulf of Mexico, and it's a long haul to get it up here," he said.

According to Glancy, El Nino makes for more moisture along the equator in the Pacific, allowing lots of evaporated moisture to make its way inland — a trend that resulted in our out-of-ordinary weather pattern.

"Our driest months of the year are, on average, January and February, so our chances, climatologically speaking, of having a wetter spring are actually better this year," said Glancy.

Which means Boulder may be looking at another big snow storm for spring 2007, he added.

The news now, however, is the current storm.

"When you wake up in the morning, it will be snowing, and it will have started sometime between midnight and six a.m.," said Glancy.

An average of four to eight inches is expected to accumulate in the Denver metro area over the course of the day Friday. The National Weather Service is issuing a winter storm warning in the mountains, where up to 15 inches is expected.

The storm is expected to leave the area between noon and 2 p.m., according to National Weather Service Forecaster Mike Baker.

"But this storm is a bit different," said Baker.

The area's two previous storms were part of a deep, circulating, low-pressure system that originated in the Pacific Northwest, said Baker, which drew additional moisture from the gulf as it made its way through New Mexico.

"And that low pressure moved into the area and just sat there, and just kept spinning like a pinwheel dumping snow," said Baker.

Friday's storm, however, is moving with the jet stream from Utah and Nevada.

"This moisture is coming in on what we call a storm track — a band of really heavy snow — that will sag over northern Colorado overnight, and along the jet stream we'll get this straight line band of moderate to heavy snowfall that we'll see beginning, we think, sometime from 2 a.m. to midday tomorrow afternoon."

In a nutshell, this storm is moving along faster, said Baker, but will still pack a punch.

"It should move fairly quickly, and we're talking a 12-hour event, literally half the time of the last two storms," said Baker. "It's going to be intense during the morning hoursŠand it could be fairly interesting."

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