Not a flake here on the north end of the Denver Metro area--and looking at radar, I think we're not gonna get any at all.

With the reports we've been getting on the local weather, I've been wondering how you guys were faring down that way. Batten down the hatches and stay warm and safe.

Skybird

Michelle, is that you? Did you change your screen name from Michelle_co to Michelletest? What are you testing!

It blew through here about 6:30 tonight. It only lasted about half an hour, but man were those winds something! The good news is that all of my winter sowed containers didn't blow away : )

Bonnie

We dodged the big snow fall on Sunday-Monday, all that was over Durango - Pagosa way, we only got some rain / slush mix. Did you get any snow out of that? Then yesterday evening, that 45 minute blast hit, which was impressive - visibility was at least 3 feet. I'm awfully glad I wasn't out when it hit.

They'd closed the schools by 8:00 pm last night. Lizard Head and Wolf Creek closed. Can you imagine being up there during that?

My full trash bin blew over, and my gate worked as a snow fence. I was out shoveling 3 feet of snow off the drive way just to open it and go right the bin.

Yes, it's Michelle_CO. I had setup a test account and forgot to logout. Ooops.

David, I can't believe the storm missed you. It snowed and blew like mad. All the windows in my house were frosted/iced over, which I've never seen before. It was an amazing storm. There are a few inches of new snow, but it's hard to tell because it blew around so much.

We must have taken the brunt of it - the wind hammered us for several hours. Wow! I am trying to imagine how the pioneers survived in this weather, chopping ice to water their livestock, putting up all their food and hay by hand. Being a country doctor on a night like last night would have been perilous, indeed.

Cheers,
Michelle

The 45 minutes we did get was the worst winter storm I've ever seen. We got, maybe, 2 " in that time. Every surface of the house, upside down under the eves, every inch of window screen and window was covered with snow. Did you find out what the wind speed was?

They have helicopters out this morning, I'd bet looking for cars off the road.

To give an idea of what was going on, my 15 yr old son opened the back door and he couldn't shut it himself, I had to come and lean into it.

I drove into town this afternoon, along my road there are 3 large cottonwood trees blown over, as well as some of the old dead trees in apple orchards. The snowplows cleared an awful lot of branches off the roads.

Glad you guys are safe down there.

Brace for the next one!

Skybird

I don't know what the windspeed ended up being... But it was the same conditions you describe. Intense! The backroad I live on has about 2" of solid ice covering it, as part of the storm hit us as rain & soaked the existing snowpack. And now more snow... Big flakes are drifting down right now.

Glad I have a pair of Yak-Trax, if I couldn't get out for a walk I'd go nuts. This has been a loooong winter. I had vague thoughts of harnessing the dogs up to a sleigh & heading south. :-) Far, far south!

Cheers,
Michelle

Michelle,

I was just whining to my sister, that still lives in the South, about how tired I was of shoveling, driving in, and just plain looking at snow. She has NO sympathy, she's actually jealous, since they only get snow once every two or three years. This winter seems much longer than last year's, and I know that it's not over yet. The forecast for the rest of the week ... highs below freezing and chances of snow 4 out of the next 5 days. Sigh.....

Maybe I'll do some more winter sowing this afternoon, that should make me feel better : )

Bonnie

Dang! We just now again had 15 minutes of really strong winds, and I heard that Crack. I just lost my spiffy, artistic, make lemonade out of lemons 'Three 150 year old dead piñons, all in a line, with concrete mesh nailed on them, holding up a wisteria and 3 clematis. It was pretty cool - the trunks were white since I'd removed the bark, and the vines were about 20 feet tall up in the dead branches. Oh well.

Hi Bonnie, has it hit zone 4 conditions yet this winter where you are? Are you in an exposed area? BRRRRR. Tell me again where you live, and I will be glad I'm south of you. :-)

Oh David, that is a bummer. The old pinons have really been falling over the last 6 months, I guess the roots are finally about done for. I bet the wet Spring also takes its toll. Unfortunately, some of my decrepit pasture fences are nailed to said trees. There will be a lot of work this Spring sawing down trees and fixin' fence.

I hope your wisteria & clematis survives.

Yep, it's a blizzard baby. The wind is kickin', big flakes are blowing. Scads of snowbirds are in the front yard pecking at the feed, and just today the redwing blackbirds and I think a stray mocking bird showed up with them. This winter has been long enough that my snowbirds are getting obese from being fed for such a long period of time. I don't think they should be twice as wide as they are tall. Their little wings look too small for their fat bodies.

:-) Cheers,
Michelle

We got a blast here in Castle Rock Monday night about 9:30. High winds and snow swirling around, it only lasted about 1/2 hour but gave us about two inches.

I WAS on the road by myself on I25 and visibility was slim. I could barely see my exit sign. When I got home and turned on the news, they made no mention of it as if nothing happened because Denver just 15 miles north got nothing.

Our trashcans blew down the drive including all the paper for recycling and our basketball hoop (the bottom is completely filled with sand) was knocked over.

Sorry about your pines, David.

It was nice this morning, but coldddd right now.

This winter does seem longer, Bonnie. Sow yourself some more seeds :) I got a bunch of gardening and design books from the library.

Stay warm and don't blow away,
Charlene

Wow, David, you're taking the loss of those pines well. Do you have a picture of that set up? It sounds pretty cool.

I've been reading this thread and relating to my locale - Fort Collins. Monday night we went out around 6:00, and it was cold, but not too bad. When we left the place we were visiting at 8pm, our breathes were taken away by a vicious, bitter wind. There was a little light snow in it. So I guess that was our taste of the blizzard. That was enough for me!

I'm sorry you folks are getting so much wind with your Wintry mix - there's nothing quite as uncomfortable if not downright dangerous.

Here in the north, we've just got snow and more snow. I humor myself trying to read the forecast discussion because most of it doesn't make much sense to me. Then I go back to the "hazardous weather" statements which can be terse almost to the point of rudeness in their lack of information:

"REST OF TODAY AND TONIGHT . . . HEAVY SNOW ACCUMULATIONS . . . DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN . . . HEAVY SNOW ACCUMULATIONS . . . AFTER THIS . . . THE NEXT CHANCE OF HEAVY ACCUMULATIONS."

Okay, so that was even further abridged. Heavy accumulations probably will only mean 5 to 7 inches down here, I'm hoping.

Steve

We get dire forecasts but so far most of the snow has been north of us and they have closed the passes several times and avalanche danger is way up there. Lost a few people in avalanches past month. So I hope we only keep on getting the couple inches at a time rather that the feet at a time. My sister in Durango West got 2 feet the other day and they closed the schools and city offices so she took one kid to work with her and pawned the other off on my brother. No way to keep peace with both of them in her office all day! Then they had to get out and shovel off the roof because of the snow load.

Michelle,

Our lows haven't been to zone 4 temps this year, but we really haven't been above freezing since before Christmas. We don't get a lot of big snows here, but a bunch of little ones that haven't melted this year. I am thankful my little plants have a cozy blanket of snow though, since it is currently -3 degrees. Brrrr.... Oh, and I am about 20 minutes west of Glenwood Springs to the north of I-70, and yes we are up on a bit of a mesa, but most of the big snows slide along the mountain ridge that runs just south of us.

Singcharlene, your post made me laugh. We used to have to chase our garbage cans on a regular basis when we lived in Castle Rock. Well, we still do here too, when they aren't frozen solid to the ground, LOL. When I brought the recycle bin back from the curb today, half of the stuff was still in it, because it was all frozen to the bottom of the bin!

Bonnie

Something of a mess up here this morning. There's been over a half-inch of precipitation overnight. It hardly makes sense to talk about snow depth when there's so much drifted and piled.

The "wake-up" temperature was 34°F!! Sustained wind was about 24 mph with gusts to 35. There will be just a little melting today but the temp is supposed to drop before sundown but more snow should be showing up.

I90 is a single lane running out of Spokane and closed to all but emergency vehicles into Montana. I decided to go to the Idaho Department of Transportation website because the north-south highway was reported to be closed. I was curious where it was closed but still don't know - the DOT just says it's closed.

Funny how diverse our Western states are - the Boise area has a separate DOT website from the rest of Idaho but that's as it should be. Information is arranged from south to north - really their map display should be turned upside down. Information on the main (only) north-south highway simply says "US 95: from Sun Up Bay Road at Lake Coeur d' Alene to The South Coeur d'Alene City Limits packed snow, heavy snow, drifting snow" and that's the worse news on the route but the alert at the top of the page still says it is closed. My question is, "Where?" For crying out loud, it must run 400 miles thru Idaho!

I looked for the highway cameras and that was no help - very few in the north (or pretty much anywhere). I had momentary confusion when I looked at the I90 camera here in the valley. It is at Liberty Lake . . . which is in Washington State!! That was okay since I know were Liberty Lake is and they'd never be able to convince me that it's in Idaho but posting the time in Mountain Standard was disconcerting. I couldn't figure out whether it was last night's photograph or this morning's for a moment!

All of northern ID is in the Pacific time zone . . . I don't suspect that Boise has annexed the I90 camera at Liberty Lake.

On CNN after the Florida primaries, I think it was William Bennett who said that conservatives were packing up and moving to Idaho. I told Dad on the phone that he shouldn't worry if the Idaho government attempts to secede from the Union and he'd lose his US passport. With secession one of two things would happen:

Either Montana and Washington would seize their bordering counties which would give them a common border east of Lake Coeur d'Alene and open warfare north of Pend O'reille. Or, the Canadians would close highway 95 at the international boundary and he'd never be able to leave anyway.

digitS'

Another heavy snow warning has just been posted for Northern Utah. The storms have been relentless this winter. My back yard is just one big glacier now and I'm wondering if I will ever see grass and dirt again.

Dereks, glaciers of ice move slowly. Slush moves quite quickly! Even tho' it is only slush for a few hours, it began invading my carport a few days ago.

I don't know what this current warm weather will do. There's so much wind, maybe it will carry the moisture over to Margaretmontana before it causes any more trouble here.

Then again, there's so much snow with more predicted - I don't suppose all of it can be directed out of the area, either East or South.

Just think of all the nitrogen trapped in the WhiteStuff and of its benefit for the plants come Spring!

digitS'

I am glad for the snow cover, too. This is the first year in my young garden that my plants have been so well protected by snow.

We are in for more snow tomorrow and over the weekend. SIGH.

Margaret, Durango West is about 15 miles due north of me - MUCH closer to the mountains than I am. They are certainly getting hammered this year. Where does your sister work?

Cheers,
Michelle

She works for the Durango Police Department and my brother works at the little convenience store across from the new hospital. The other brother is retired. I will be down there the last weekend of May for a memorial service for my mother and sister in Dove Creek. Hope it isn't gumbo mud that weekend so we can go out to the family farm on Cedar Point.

Had 5 inches of snow today before it got dark and was still snowing and suppose to snow tomorrow and then a day break and back to snowing again. Snow is good for the forest and snow pack but cabin fever has a hold on me!!!!
Started peppers from seed on Sunday.

Margaretmontana - don't forget to take back a few sacks of beans.

If you haven't eaten dryland pinto beans from Dove Creek, then you haven't eaten pinto beans - folks here have been known to get into fights in the supermarkets when they go on sale, tugging away at a 20 lb sack - it tears, beans all over the floor, and folks on their knees scrambling to pick 'em up.

Honest. They're that good.

Margaret, I am sorry about your mom and sister. :-(

I swear, the wind is always blowing in Dove Creek. I have never been there when it wasn't windy.

David, pintos sound good. I am pretty sure there's a bag of Dove Creek pintos in the cupboard.

Cheers,
Michelle

Yes, I am sure we will eat beans at least once while there and take some home. The family farm raises beans on a good year and some wheat. They have experimented with safflower, canola and sunflowers also. Since it is dryland it has some problems in growing anything some years. When I was a kid we ate soooo many beans that I thought I would never want to see another bean. But now I seldom have them and really enjoy them. My mother won a ribbon at the fair for her bean biscuits! And once and awhile I make bean fudge - it is good!

Boy, you guysÂDavid and MichelleÂjust arenÂt gonna get a break down there for a while, are you? Channel 4/Denver said you could get up to FOUR FEET down there. That seemed incredible so I checked NOAA, and at least theyÂre just measuring it in inchesÂbut even they say up to 20" for some areas.

And everybody west of the Rockies seems to be perpetually getting dumped on this year too. Good luck to you, Highalt, and all you folks out in Utah, and Digit way up there in IdahoÂkinda! More snow for all you guys. Cabin fever must be an understatement by now. At least itÂs good for the water supply for all of us.

Just keep thinking: The days are getting longer, and spring WILL come!

Stay safe, and stay warm everyone,
Skybird

We are beyond Cabin Fever, well into Cabin Delirium. It snowed all day, and they have a severe weather alert for tomorrow and next day. David, how's the snow over your way?

By the by, anyone else eat groundhog today? I don't think the groundhog could dig himself out this weekend.

Cheers,
Michelle

We just had flurries off and on all day, but I noticed they have changed the forecast for tomorrow and Monday to include "accumulating snow".

When we went into Glenwood Springs today, I was suprised at how much larger their snowpiles were than ours! They are just crammed in between the mountains along the river, but where we are there is a lot more space between the mountains, it's much more open. Amazingly, even though it was snowing, there were still quite a few people swimming at the Hot Springs pool.

Bonnie

The weather is nasty this morning. Strong winds with heavy snow. They tell us one more small storm wednesday then we may see a break for several days. What a relief!

Skybird, you are right about our water supply. So I'm trying to stay positive about this. Also, I think it was digits that said something about nitrogen in the snow. I don't know how that works, but if that's the case, my plants will be loving life this summer.

"David, how's the snow over your way?
By the by, anyone else eat groundhog today?

Snow???? What snow???? Groundhog fritters and Wonder Bread for breakfast.

I have a 4' deep X 30' long drift twixt the house and the wood pile. I tried to take my son up XC skiing yesterday, and a couple miles up the road, I saw a spot where several acres of the 'whats-left-of-the-pinion' / juniper forest was flattened by the last wind storm, and some poor guy who has a 6 ft diameter cottonwood across his driveway. We turned around after seeing 3 car tracks going into the ditch, which was pretty hard to delineate. He wants to go today, but from what I'm seeing, it may not be such a great idea -

Telluride has had 19 feet of snow in two months. I haven't seen any thing for Wolf Creek, but I bet its spectacular.

What's in a groundhog fritter? It sounds delish.

How is Utah doing with the storm? Sounds like this one is going to POUND S. Utah.

I got motivated and finally hooked up the tractor to plow. It's great fun with that much snow! I'm afeared to see what morning will bring.

David, how do you use the garbanzos? I use them in salad (green salad or bean salads) and am interested to know what else to use them for.

Cheers,
Michelle

Dried garbanzos, around here, are first soaked over night, then boiled in salted water for an hour, rinsed, cooled off, and then eaten. Few make it beyond the initial wave of warm and salty snarfism. Those that do are tossed in a cold salad with rice and such, with a vinegar / olive oil dressing. Fresh, slightly under-ripe garbanzos are eaten by quick steaming, salt and butter. It's a different animal all together.

SE Utah is closed, highway Moab - Blanding, east of Montecello is all closed.

Buncha Wimps.

I'm supposed to take a steer out to Yellow Jacket on tuesday for butchering, but they phoned and said they'd call to confirm if they can get in to the shop. Schools are closed on monday.

Glad you're not a wimp, David, 'cause they're talking about you on the Denver news, and I don't think you're gettin' out of there anytime soon!

Coal Bank, Molas Divide, and Red Mountain Passes are closed, along with Lizard Head and Wolf Creek.

I'm bettin' your steer is safe for a few more days yet---even tho you don't need to go over any of those to get to Yellow Jacket!

Batten down the hatches, light a fire in the fireplace, and break out the hot chocolate!

And once again,
Stay safe---all you snow bound people,
Skybird

I was going to argue that it's business as usual today. DH got in his car to go to work, got out of our nice plowed drive - and high centered trying to drive down the county road to the highway! The snow is too deep, and his Saab won't push the snow up over the hood :-). So we are truly snow bound! Who'd have thunk it?

Here's the entry from last year's garden journal:
Second week Feb.: crocus emerging

Cheers,
Michelle

I am sort of hoping the snowplow fairy will show up. I got struck in my driveway last evening, dug out and got it in the garage, and then it snowed another foot.

Snow plow fairies wear all wear Carharts and have tractors. Can't tell 'em apart with all the clothes and hats and stuff they wear, and can't tell the tractors apart because they're all so rusty, so we just refer to the generic.

They actually closed the schools here today! I am told the last time they closed was '86. We really didn't get that much at our house, maybe 5", but the county includes New Castle, which always gets more snow than us.

Michelle, my DH opted to work from home today too. His 4WD truck would probably have been fine, but it still would have taken him 1 1/2 - 2 hours to get to work from here, so he decided it wasn't really worth it. The good news is he cooked bacon and eggs for us, and I even got a cappucino out of the deal : )

Bonnie

Snow plow fairies wear all wear Carharts and have tractors.

Hey, that's me! Snowplow fairy on a Kubota. :-)

Schools are closed here, too. Growing up here, I remember school closing twice. Bacon and eggs sounds good! I'll have a side of hashbrowns with mine, please!

I think we netted about 17" of new snow out of the storm.

Cheers,
Michelle

Well, after being closed ALL last week - the schools here are open today!

I don't know when public schools have been closed for 5 days straight. But it wasn't only the kids - all the colleges closed at least for a day or 2!

That's something I don't remember ever happening, either. Not only don't I remember the 4 year schools being closed for me but I don't remember it happening for anybody!

We aren't out of the storms just yet - Accuweather is predicting 5 to 8 more inches over the next 2 days followed by freezing rain!! Finally, if it really gets very far into the 40's over next weekend - there's no question, we'll have flooding.

digitS'

Being in a ski town, they used to cancel college classes pretty often - the profs wanted to get out and ski! I don't remember the whole college closing except when snow collapsed the roof of one of the building.

Darn it, I just checked the weather and we are supposed to get 1-2 more feet. It's bad news when they round the numbers off to the nearest foot.

I am also waiting for the flood. Hope you live on high ground, Steve. I am often glad that we live on top of a Mesa. The flooding should be somewhere between terrifying and impressive.

Time to put on the Cover-alls and go play!

Cheers,
Michelle

Ah, a snowplow tractor fairy showed up, and now I can get out of my drive way. My kids, since school is closed, are busy making snow forts and snow condos and snow castles, all by using a dozen empty 5 gal pots from the greenhouse as a mold. Regular assembly line out there.

I'm on a nice slope which starts, just about, in my front yard and ends about a half-mile away. (It would be nice if I owned all that land ;o)

Other than flooding my carport at the back of the lot, there's no real problem here at home. The only real concern is the road going downhill which can turn into a creek and, of course, all of the low lying areas. The WA and ID governors have declared states of "emergency" but I guess that is mostly to free up state money for equipment rental for snow removal.

I can't really see what the emergency is just yet except the budgets are getting broken paying for the "snowplow fairies." (Ya sure they like to be referred to as such?) Snoqualmie Pass is open again today after being closed most of last week. DOT used over 1,500 lbs of explosives to try to eliminate the avalanche danger.

The ID national guard is out today clearing snow from the roofs of the schools. Apparently, one of the sources for equipment is British Columbia. How 'bout that, the Canadians may be coming to the rescue?

digitS'

ROFL! Thanks for the great laugh, Digit! I wanna watch (from a distance) when somebody goes up to a snowplow driver and tells him, thanks for being such a good fairy! Maybe if ya spell it, faerie, he wouldnÂt be too offended! IÂm supposed to keep my endorphin levels up to help heal my brainÂand laughter produces endorphinsÂso thanks again, and keep up the good workÂlaughter faerie!

I had a blizzard here at home...................well...............

I had a snow storm here at home...................well..............

I got a couple flakes!!!

It never fails! There was snow all around meÂand all I got was something that amounted to snow "mist!" What do I do to get snow in Thornton?

I know! I know! Be careful what I wish for! But I get so little precip up here compared to everywhere else (bet Charlene is getting dumped on again!) that IÂm game to wish for anything right now. My lawn and flower beds really could use a little bit of moisture again. So IÂm gonna keep praying to the Snow Faerie!

I see a Thornton snow dance in my future,
Skybird

No snow Saturday and Sunday but got 2 inches last night and suppose to get a break tomorrow and then back to snow again for several days. Isn't too bad here. Suppose to get up in the 30s in the afternoons starting tomorrow but close to 0 tonight. When all this melts then there is likely to be some flooding but I am not close to the river.
However, my sister and brother in Durango are shoveling roofs and I guess my brother lost a skylight and is snowbound because the snow plows have made a 4 foot berm where he can't get out without doing a lot of shoveling. My sister said they had bermed in her husbands pickup so she had to drive him to work and no school so she went back home and shoveled roof and driveway and made the kids shovel also so they were not so happy about school being closed.

Well, it's not a blizzard today, but the forecast was way off the mark! The forecast called for a 30% chance of flurries and snow showers, so far, we have about 2" and it is still coming down heavy. At least there is no wind with it this time.

The good news is that the temps should reach 40 by the weekend. That will feel like summertime after the past two months!

I'm wondering how many of my perennials will come back after this wet of a winter?

Bonnie

Hi High,

I think our southwestern compadres are getting a break this time!

Don't worry about your perennials. They'll be fine! When the temps are this cold they're not going to rot, and when it all starts to melt in spring, with your high, rarified air, they'll dry out quickly---probably more quickly than you'd wish! Last winter I had a couple peonies in big pots above ground, and (still don't know how) they filled up with water and froze into a solid block of ice. I was worried about them, but there was nothing I could do about it. The ice would half thaw and then freeze again and it was a real mess. I tried to lay them on their side so the water could run out when they thawed some, but one was frozen solid to the ground, so it stayed upright---thawing and freezing and thawing and freezing. In spring the peonies came happily up, and are now planted in the ground in my front yard.

Is your stuff mostly covered with snow (I assume)? If so it's staying a constant 32 degrees and it's having a very happy winter. And if the ground is bare, it won't be staying wet long enough to hurt anything.

Time to be daydreaming of all the flowers in a few more months,
Skybird

Hi Sky! Nice to see you posting again! I'll take that as a sign that you are doing better?

The flower beds along the walkway have been buried in 6 - 8 inches of snow for the last two months. The bed up against the house has melted and frozen several times over the winter, but never long enough to dry out before the next snowfall. The plants I'm most concerned about are the ones that don't like wet feet, like my Agastaches, Sedums and Echinaceas.

Definitely ready for spring,
Bonnie

Hi High,

Very gradually feeling better, but I sure will be glad when the dizziness is ALL THE WAY gone!

I still really don't think you have anything to worry about---even for the xeric things. The cold temps will mitigate the effect of any extra wetness now, and, with as exposed as your stuff is, they'll dry FAST when it starts to warm up enough for something to rot---and remember, the soil will be cold way after the air is getting very warm. Just remember how worried you were about your coreopsis last summer---and it was FINE! Distraction needed here! Back to your winter sowing and pergola planning, girl!

Spring will be here soon. Don't let the snow fool you!
Skybird

P.S. And if something doesn't make it, we'll be here to hold your hand! And, just think, it'll give you somewhere to put the stuff you get at the swap!

Bonnie, cold and dry has to be much rougher on plants than cold and wet. The only time I've had plants that should have come back but fail to do so - was after dry Winters. Over weeks & weeks, you just know that they are turning into dehydrated, cellulose fiber, desiccated, with all the life fried and frozen out of them. (See how I'm trying to paint a reassuring picture for you?)

Right now, everything in my yard is under between 2 and 4 feet of snow. We're suppose to have as much as 6 more inches tonight under what the weather service is calling an "impressive plume" of moisture. Then temperatures going up to the mid-40's with a "low" of 33°F and "showers likely" on Saturday night!!

I'll assume those showers will be rain. This could get real scary but I'm somewhat relieved that the words "flood" and "flooding" aren't being used yet. Apparently, the weekend storm isn't supposed to amount to much.

digitS'

Chiming in a little late... We went to the west side of the state this weekend to stay in some cabins (Columbine Cabins), about 20 miles north of Steamboat. Boy, they had a lot of snow! And it snowed the entire time we were there. But we had a blast. It was pretty remote and we could let the dogs run on the property. Camber just loved jumping up on the plowed snowbanks.

On the topic of so much snow and it's affect on our plants, I was thinking about the Mojave Desert a couple of years ago. Does anyone remember that they had this spectacular year for wildflowers, which brought in a bunch of tourists? I guess that would have been due to an abundance of rain (don't think they get much snow there!). But I wonder if a similar affect could be seen in our dry regions this spring and summer?