Colorado Blizzard!

[ET Warrior]

I posted this over in the Swamp, but not all of you frequent there, and I feel the goings ons in my life are important enough that everyone should care about them.

For those unaware, Colorado was hit by one of the worst snowstorms in recent history (4th biggest snowfall in Denver ever), burying almost the entire eastern half of the state with 1-5 feet of snow on the plains, and much more in the mountains. The snow started late last Tuesday (Dec. 19th) and lasted about a day and a half. Pretty much every town in the state completely shut down because of this.

 

Grocery stores still haven't been able to restock their shelves, and we even got some more snow on Sunday.

 

DIA was completely shut down for a full day and a half, which I know caused a lot of travelers complications.

 

There is a group on facebook devoted to it, here are some select user-submitted pictures

 

Yes, there is a car in this picture.

They might be there awhile...

I think it's impressive that there is that kind of pile-up of snow, when there were 20+ mph winds during the snowfall (enough to sink the trampoline almost to the ground, and still have a couple feet piled over the top)

snow drifts are funny

Taking the bus wasn't even a safe bet

Why you don't drive in blizzards

and this is why DIA was closed

 

I hope the blizzard didn't negatively affect any of you or your loved ones

[Diego Varen]

Now I'm glad that we hardly get snow here in England. That must have been terrible.

[igyman]

Whoa. I can't remember when there was that much snow here in Serbia. It fell last Monday, but it's all melted now. I just hope all that snow won't make everyday lives too difficult (well, except for the inevitable traffic jams).

[JasraLantill]

No traffic jams. My parents live in Colorado Springs and they are still shovelling out the driveway. Not that they can go anywhere. Last I heard, the snow plow hadn't even come yet to plow the street.

[Jae Onasi]

We're pretty lucky--After our blizzard, we had some cold days, but then it warmed up into the 50's (unusually warm for a WI December) and everything melted. We have a few piles left where it had gotten plowed into huge mounds, but that's about it. Not that we're home-free by any means--January's the coldest month for us, and I expect we'll see more snow.

 

Hope you get some warmer weather soon to melt some of that.

 

I bet the skiers are loving it. That may be the only way to get around at this point. I remember a huge snowfall in WI when I was a kid and snowmobilers came out to help rescue people stuck in cars--it was the only way to get around at that point.

[ET Warrior]

From Wednesday to Thursday almost every single highway and interstate was closed. Fortunately for me, I had nowhere to go until Saturday, and by that time the major roads had been plowed several times over, but almost every single side street in any town is barely passable still.

 

It's 50 degrees out today though, so hopefully we'll see a lot of melt.

[Kas'!m]

My sister lives in Denver. Her and her son were driving and sliding.

[HerbieZ]

Awesome. Wish i was there. There has been no snow in England this year. Vastly disapointing.

[Bimmerman]

I was right in the middle of that, taking finals in deep snow. Boulder got between two and three feet before it started drifting everywhere. Thankfully, my Calc final was all of thirty feet from my dorm Wednesday night(when all the snow dumped), so I was only affected slightly. Was stuck at my dorm that night however, which wasn't too bad. A number of kids skiied on the roads and all over campus. Our attempt for the world's largest snowball fight(facebook group) was hampered by the snowfall.

 

All in all, there's still a foot or two here, and it's been nearly a week now. At least the roads are clear. If only all the idiots who don't know how to drive on snow(i.e. all the stranded california kids) would just stay off the roads it would much safer around here.

 

EDIT: Posted pics from my cell phone. They're from thursday night, after a full day of melting, when I helped move my friend out from the dorms

Early 90s honda buried

 

My winter blitzmobile. Can't tell from the angle, but it's in a culdesac that is entirely buried by snow with only one track in and out, barely wider than my car. AWD Subaru FTW!

[Taos]

I'll take the rain in Washington over the Colorado snow anyday! I can at least drive to the mountains where it does snow if I want it.

 

Seriously though, that looks pretty bad, I hope people are doing alright there.

[Emperor Devon]

I envy you, ET. In Washington we get rain, rain, and even more rain. It's great weather, but there's hardly any snow. Just a few inches would be fantastic news, let alone a few feet. (Not all Northwesterners dislike it as much as Leemu. )

[Bimmerman]

You people who get rain....lucky. Here in Colorado it doesn't really rain. It's either bright and sunny or snowing, sometimes going from sun to snow and back to sun all in a matter of minutes(really happened to me in Estes Park-- weird). This last April we had a storm that dropped a few inches of snow one day, and the very next it was around 75 degrees. Colorado weather's censored-curseword up.

[ET Warrior]

I don't envy your rain one bit. It doesn't snow THAT often here, we get a few big storms a year but most of the winter is just bitter cold, and extremely warm sunny summers.

 

While it's not generally predictable, it's usually a safe bet to assume that it's going to be sunny at SOME point during the day.

[Emperor Devon]

It doesn't snow THAT often here, we get a few big storms a year but most of the winter is just bitter cold, and extremely warm sunny summers.

 

Heh, sounds great to me. There've been some occasions over here where we've gone without any snow for a year or so.

[RedHawke]

*Looks at ET's Pics* Now that's some snow!

[Bob Lion54]

The picture of the house gave me a laugh. I can imagine the homeowner stepping out to see if the snow has cleared up, just to have all that snow land on their head. hehe

 

Last night was cold. Well, cold for Louisiana. It got down to 35 degrees. There was no snow, but the grass was white with frost. It has been colder before, but not by much.

 

I'm cold just thinking of all that snow...

[CSI]

:woot!: Wow, I really wanted that blizzard...That thick snow...

[Jason Skywalker]

Here in Portugal it doesn't rain or snow! Which also has it's disadvantages since i think i'd like snow and water is essencial.

[ET Warrior]

It's not over

 

Phew, I was beginning to think we might actually have time to recover from the last blizzard.

[Bimmerman]

Yup, I-70's been closed down for a few hours, meaning I can't go skiing anytime soon. The snow from the last storm has still not melted off!

[RedHawke]

It's not over

Not good... not good at all.

 

I wish I could export some of our fine California weather out to Colorado... then I'd be rich!

[Bimmerman]

Haha yea some SoCal sun'd be great right about now. Still sore from snowblowing the driveway. It dumped a good foot at my house (at the base of the mountains); it's always worse further east towards the plains. The worst of it is still to come- this storm's forecast to last until saturday or early sunday, eliminating the autocross. Winter sucks!

[Quanon]

Well at least you people see some white , here in Belgium it's just plain boring gray and rain . Its like been three weeks since I've the sun as a bright disk , man its depressing . Although 3 tons of snow on your house doesn't seem to be paradise to .

 

Whiched that Europe was more down to the south

[Cygnus Q'ol]

I used to live in Denver, once upon a time.

Radical weather from what I can remember.

 

We had blizzards, but I don't remember anything like this.

I do remember washing my car on my birthday one year because it reached 65degrees and I remember thinking that I could never do this at home(Wisconsin) and two days later it snowed 18inches.

 

...and I thought that was something. This is ridiculous.

 

It will make for excellent skiing later this winter though.