Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to No wonder, you're smack dab right in the middle of the Rocky Mountain foothills

Actually, it's a bit unusual.
podrock — (archived)

Front Range winters are milder than you'd think, at least at this elevation, which is not really in the mountains, but at the base of them. Our typical mid-winter pattern has the lows going north of us, which brings snow to the mountains and downslope winds here. These are warm, dry winds known as Chinook winds, which is a indigenous term for "snow-eater" Autumn and Spring typically brings the lows to the south, and then we get upslope, and deep snows.

Official stats for December 2006 snow fall: 45.5 inches

Here's a chart of our average snowfall by month:

http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/Boulder/images/snow.GIF


And here's a table that goes back to 1889. Looks like we have to go back to 1913 to beat this December's total, when it snowed 52.5 inches.

45.5 inches is the second largest snow depth in one month since 1900. November of 1992 is a close third at 44.7.

El Nino does strange things to the jet stream, that's for sure.

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