Let’s spread the love. The more you know, the better chance you have of finding the pow.
How to forecast your next powder day?
3/4/2010
A presentation given at REI Boulder’s community hours.
When to call in sick for a powder day?
12/10/2009
I presented this talk at Ignite Boulder #7 on December 10th, 2009. At the end I said you should have a “Case of the Mondays” because of a big powder day. I’m happy to report that Monday, December 14th, 2009 was in fact a good day to be on the hill.
Below is the 5-minute video, and here is a link directly to the slides.
The science and art of snow forecasting
10/21/2009
Here are two ways to jump on the train to snow forecasting genius:
Quick 1-pager about tips & tricks to forecasting snow in Colorado.
The next resource will take a bit longer, but it’s well worth your time to flip through 30 beautifully illustrated slides. And they’re right here – no need to go anywhere else!
How about some educational lessons on things like: What is the jet stream? What is El Nino/La Nina? What makes the barometric go up and down?
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Tim – excellent thoughts. I will try to put some slides together on these topics in the upcoming weeks. Thanks for your interest!
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Could we get more information on cut off low pressure systems and what they are all about?
Great site!
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Jon – thanks for the question. I’ll add “cut-off lows” to my “things to do list” for education. Quickly, a cut-off low is like an eddy in a stream that gets separated from the main (usually west-to-east) flow of the atmosphere. The weather computer models do a decent job forecasting storms moving at a steady clip from west-to-east. However, with a cut-off low, the computer models have a tough time forecasting the storm. Usually, the cut-off low moves further south and moves more slowly than the models predict. Case in point: the storm from November 28-30, 2009 (where we thought the southern CO mountains would get snow, but the cut-off low went further south).
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Can you explain more about orographics,and how you can tell if the orographics of a storm system will produce a lot or a little precipitation in certain areas. Thanks,great site.
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Adam – thanks for your question. Two things we need for orographics: Moisture in the air, and a decent wind speed (above 15mph is good, stronger is better). If moist air is forced quickly up a mountain, decent precipitation usually results. Slide #22 above shows good wind directions for orographic snow at many mountain areas. Hope this helps!
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I like the idea, I think, behind this site, but I don’t see any forecasts on it, and please get off Flash. And a forum on the front page w/o any dates behind the last reply..
but I believe this is a site done in the free time so it is impressive along those lines. But I don’t see any reason to come back. CAIC is much more informative.
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Joel Gratz Reply:
March 10th, 2010 at 3:51 PM
Thanks for your comment. I don’t like the layout of the front page either – it makes the forecasts hard to find. For now, just go to the homepage and click on the biggest picture (which is the “main” story), and this will have the latest commentary on the weather and the forecast. Q&A in the comments that follow this story show more specific forecasts responding to people’s questions.
I also dislike flash, but at the moment with limited programming resources, I am dependent on the flash widget provided by onthesnow.com
While CAIC provides 3-day weather forecasts and focuses on avalanches, I provide longer-term forecasts, entertaining commentary, and lots of interaction/Q&A/education. I’m sure it’s not for everyone…
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