Atmosphere Comparison

[Jim]

The endless chatter of weather.

[big_load]

Current Super Bowl forecast is around freezing, with light mixed precipitation. The temperature forecast that far out is more reliable here than in AZ. Precipitation is iffy, but again more reliable than it would be so far in advance in AZ.

[Jim]

Wow, I'm surprised you read the NWS discussions from New York. I thought I was extreme by reading them from California.

[chumley]

@Jim_H
My parents live there. It gives me something to talk about when I call my mother. ;)

[azbackpackr]

A two minute drizzle yesterday morning in Yuma as we launched our kayaks, but then balmy sunshine the rest of the weekend. And today, driving home, I had to turn the windshield wipers on in El Cajon, for about three swipes.

[Jim]

The Sacramento NWS is now talking about a mid-week storm with over 2 inches of rainfall to western slopes of the Sierra. Not sure how far south it will get, but I have been sick again this year, and so I might not be able to do the C2C. It would be nice if I could say I was unable to hike the full C2C because of deep snow, instead of being incapable.

[sneakySASQUATCH]

60 degrees yesterday. Woke up to 10 degrees and snow on the ground. Nice change of scenery from the window.

[Jim]

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/fgz/News/DrySpe ... .29.14.png

Looks like Flagstaff might be up to spot # 1 for a winter dry stretch, by the 30th or 31st. Today, the 29th, should have tied the old # 1 from 1938 with 39 dry days in a row. Not much for the year round dry periods, but they tend to be in the spring or fall dry season, and this is supposed to be the wet season.

I don't see any real precipitation for Arizona or New Mexico, or Southern California, from this series of moderate storms. Even this storm, as good as it is, isn't be very impressive in a normal year. 1 to 2 inches in the Sierra Foothhills and lower slopes, with up to 3.5 inches on the crest. Totals drop very fast to the south, with just over an inch around Yosemite up high, less in the valley, and less than 1/2 an inch my Mammoth Mountain. Virtually dry near Whitney.

Utah, the Wasatch and Uinta, and Colorado look to do real well out of all this, with impressive totals forecast for the Front Range north of I-70, as well as into the Sawatch Range depending on which NWS office you consult. Lesser, but still healthy totals in the San Juan and southern San Juan, but virtually nothing into the Sangres and New Mexico Ranges. Nothing around the Pikes Peak area, either.

While on the one hand, I don't want cold, snow, or wind, on the other, a return to some rain of quantity would be nice. It got dry around the New Year, and it is much like last winter, around here. Arizona had a good November and December, but the last 5 weeks have been dry enough that it probably is rough on the desert. Anyone seeing much growth in the desert, or is it too early still?

[sneakySASQUATCH]

@Jim_H
We got snow the day before yesterday and expecting 3-5 inches by Sat. night. A basin got 10" overnight.

[Jim]

Actually, it looks like the storm might be bit further south, as the Pike Region now has some snow forecast, and the San Juan and Sangres seem to be getting some snow as well. Arizona is getting completely snubbed by this one.

[azbackpackr]

I saw someone with snowboards in his truck today, and asked him about it. He said he is headed for Mammoth. On the other hand, the forecast for rain has kind of been modified, and looks like it won't be much here in San Diego County.

[sneakySASQUATCH]

26 " snow overnight at Breck. 6-8 inches at the house. Had to help get the truck out of the driveway so my wife could get to work.

[kingsnake]

And yet nobody in Breckenridge completely lost their ****, unlike 2" Atlanta ... :roll:

[Jim]

Why, what happened in Atlanta, Colorado?

[FOTG]

I don't know if link will work, but this is a very interesting piece on drought in our areas...crazy stat..lake Mead has lost 4 trillion gallons of water since 2000, I cant even really quantify or imagine that..but that sounds bad...

on a positive note though it says the city of Las Vegas is able to recycle 93 percent of its water..so that is promising..although, unless I heard wrong they also have a 90% reliance on water from Lake Mead...trying times, video certainly paints a bleak picture..

http://news.yahoo.com/video/western-u-d ... 6-cbs.html

[chumley]

@friendofThundergod
4 trillion gallons = 12,275,533 acre-feet.
1 acre-foot = 1 average household's annual water use

For math-made-easy, lets say there have been 12.275 years since 2000 (instead of 13 or 14, depending on when they started and stopped their clock).
That's a loss of 1 million acre-feet per year, or an annual reduction of 1 million households worth of water use.

If we keep losing 1 million households worth of water annually, and we keep adding to the total number of households ... well, you don't need to be good at math to figure it out.

Now excuse me while I go mow my beautiful green lawn

[FOTG]

@chumley
yikes! doomsday math there...

I once had a crazy professor tell our class in college that the next great war in America would be over the Great Lakes...maybe he was on to something..lol

[chumley]

He must've been from Michigan. Those people aren't too bright. ;)

[Jim]

Except that most water is still used for agricultural irrigation, not residential use. The professor may have thought western areas might try to tap the lakes for use. Something like that.

[sneakySASQUATCH]

It's safe to say we exceeded the forecast snow as evidenced by the soccer ball on my deck.

[Jim]

Very nice. I was thinking about how annoying the high winds and overcast are today, but thought it was tolerable if other places that need snow and rain are getting it. Still, it would be nice if we would get something.