November 13, 2024 • 8 mins
IT'S TIME FOR WEATHER WEDNESDAY! And I've already got some snow questions for Fox 31's Chief Meteorologist Dave Fraser when he joins me at 12:30 so get yours ready!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dave Frasier. Dave, So, yeah, we got some snow last week.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Nunh. Yeah. Do you guys enjoyed that? Well?
Speaker 3 (00:09):
I actually I was actually in Las Vegas visiting my mom,
so I missed the bulk of it. But this I
read yesterday. I had this on the blog yesterday. We've
blown through our snow totals for November. So that's a good,
good thing.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yep, yeah, no, it was a good thing. I too,
was out of town and kind of missed out a
little bit, although it was in contact with the team. Yeah,
so we picked up. It was five straight days of
measurable snow. The most was on the Friday at nine
point three inches of heavy wet snow. That set a
record for Friday, and then that put us at twenty
(00:45):
inches for the month. Now, a normal month of November
seven point four inches over the whole month, so we're
at twenty inches. We don't need another snowflake for the
rest of the month. And that's the tenth snowiest November
on record, so that's pretty good. Here's the other good thing,
Mandy liquid equivalent. That was a heavy wet snow. It's
one point eight inches of moisture that's the eighth wettest November,
(01:08):
and it got us back on track towards the year.
We were lagging behind coming out of the dry summer
and fall, and now we're actually a little ahead, way
ahead for November and just about a tenth of an
inch ahead for the year. Good Years Drought Monitor comes
out tomorrow, hoping southeast color Rotol should see some improvement.
The front range, the farther of the north can go
(01:28):
not as much. The snow was better from the city
to the south and.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
East, so and the plains got a bunch of rain
even yesterday. Did I see that. Yes?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, with that little storm system that kicked off, they
got more moisture. So that was an area that had
a little bit of drought. The worst rout in the
state is actually in Boulder and Larimer County, to the
north and west of downtown Denver. That's the hardest hit area.
Those areas didn't do as well. They got some moisture,
but the east and southeastern plains. I drove back on
Sunday from Arizona and came up through northern New Mexico.
(01:58):
They got hit hard. Roads were closed. As most people know.
I twenty five was closed all the way through Saturday
night from northern New Mexico up to Pueblo in Colorado.
There's a lot of deep snow down there in the
southeast corner of the state.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah good, I mean that's good. We're off to a
good start our winter. Do we have any more snow
in the immediate future? What should we be looking at?
Do we need to worry about another storm before Thanksgiving
or around Thanksgiving?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
No? The only thing I can't see out with any
detail to Thanksgiving yet I am getting questions from people
about that. We're talking fifteen days out, so we've got
to wait a little bit. The pattern at the beginning
of the month was that November would be warmer and
drier than normal. I've told your time and time again.
When we look at those long Dame forecasts, it tells
you nothing about the day to day. It clearly didn't
(02:43):
account for the five days of snow we got, and
now the outlook for the range of the month is
slightly cooler and a little wetter. The only day I
have the chance for snow I'm sitting at work right
now putting the forecast together, is Tuesday. It's a very
low chance. It's another southern storm. I think southeast Colorado
will do better than Denver. In the front range. We
might get some snow showers and a little grassy accumulation,
(03:04):
but that's it. Beyond that, the next ten days look dry.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
All right.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I got a question from a listener. Michelle said, this, Okay,
riddle me this. A square foot patch of snow is
easy to shovel when it's fresh and fluffy. As that
same amount of snow melts in the same square foot,
it gets so much heavier.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Why So, here's the thing. So snow has weight. Obviously,
a normal what we would call fluffy snow, generally a
square foot as we Sell was talking about, is about
four pounds when you lift the shovel. We all know
that you feel it in your legs, your arms, your
back as you're lifting it. A wet snow, which is
(03:46):
what we saw with this last storm, that weight can
get up as much as ten to thirteen pounds per
square pot. Wow when yeah, it can, and you know
you think about the weight of that on your roof.
Most roofs, thankfully we have pitched roofs, but most roofs
can only handle twenty pounds of weight for square foot,
(04:06):
So those are heavy wet storms. That's where you know
you see sometimes these flat roofs guys moving snow off.
But here's the thing. That snow we had last week
was a heavy wet snow, and so while it fell
and it was light initially, if you let it go overnight,
the ground temperature, the pave, the temperature is going to
melt that bottom layer. And so instead of shoveling it
(04:27):
in a light, fluffy manner and you wait till the
next day, you've compacted it and you're lifting all of
the water component of the snow in the whole square foot,
so it can't you know, you're better off attacking it.
I heard you talk about Chuck going out three times.
When we have snow in the forecast of six or
seven or ten inches, it's better to chip away at it,
especially if it's going to be a heavy wet snow,
(04:49):
and this was a very heavy wet snow. As a
matter of fact, the temperatures during the whole event were
around thirty one to thirty five, so it wasn't a
terribly cold storm. But as we always talk about our altitude,
our mountains, our foothills are very efficient with the right
wind direction at cranking out snow despite the temperatures being
at or above freezing.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
All right, I got another one for you from the
text line, Mandy, please ask my weather guru if it's
better to get that twenty inches of snow at one
time or if it's better to have it spread out
over a month.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I mean, I would rather see it. Well, there's a
good way, in a bad way. Listen. I'll take it
every way we can get it. It's all good moisture.
I would rather see it come in small increments to
kind of spread it out. I think it works a
little better. You can melt a little here and there,
you can get some to soak in, as long as
the ground hasn't gone rock hard. So i'd rather see
that in this type of an event. If you go
(05:43):
outside right now and you've got deep snow, you're probably
listening to most of it running down your gutters, and
you can see it running down the streets. So i'd
rather see it. The other reason that i'd rather see
that it's easier to manage from a clearing standpoint and
from road conditions, So battling twenty inches at once, right,
let's take it in three eight inch storms or something
(06:04):
like that, where we can manage it a little better.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah, but then you've got to deal with three eight
inch storms instead of one twenty in storm.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
So from a personal perspective, it's like, it's like is
it better.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Is it better for our drought index or is it
better for you?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
That's what we're asking. I think really goes about two
very different answers.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, I think you're right. I think at your perspective,
get it out of the way, you know, pull the
band aid off all at once, or sprinkle it out
over time. Either way, I'll take the moisture.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
One more question, This one's a very interesting one. Years ago,
Senator John Thune proposed consolidating the one hundred and twenty
two local National Weather Service offices into six regional centers.
Not asking about the political ramifications, but what operational impact
would this have in your view?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You know, that's a that's a tough question for me answer,
you know, off the hip here, I am so used
to the regional offices, and I don't know what our
local offices. Excuse me, I don't know what a regional
office would look like. The reason I like the local
offices is is that people in the local offices are
like you and me. They live here and they get
(07:17):
to learn the topography and the nature, and they get
to see the growth city and understand it. I don't
know that somebody in the different part of the country
will have that understanding. Plus, we in the broadcast community
have a great working partnership with the folks at the
National Weather Service, So as they're preparing to put out
a forecast and talk about the products and the alerts
(07:37):
that they're going to issue, whether it's a winter weather
advisory or maybe a winter storm warning because the snow
is going to be deeper and have a bigger impact,
they're in communication with us so that we can then
be the voice and the mouthpiece to get it to
the public and that we're all on the same page.
And so that relationship, to me is very very valuable
when it comes to messaging on a storm and what
(07:59):
kind of impact the viewers, the listeners, your listeners, our
viewers should be prepared for.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
All right, that is a great answer off the hip.
So I'm looking really quickly because more questions have come on. No,
people are definitely saying I'd rather have it all at
once because they only want to deal with snow one
more time.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
So there you go, Dave Frasier, you can see. Yeah,
go ahead.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I was just saying those people who say that that's fantastic,
but just remember March and April, when you're out there
and there's four feet of snow in one storm, you
might change your mind.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, there you go, There you go, Dave Frasier.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Joy As always, we'll check in next week and find
out what maybe we can begin to see for the
Thanksgiving holiday.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Enjoy the rest of the nice sunny days through the weekend.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
I'll take this all day long. That is Dave Fraser
from Fox thirty one.
Dave Frasier. Dave, So, yeah, we got some snow last week.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Nunh. Yeah. Do you guys enjoyed that? Well?
Speaker 3 (00:09):
I actually I was actually in Las Vegas visiting my mom,
so I missed the bulk of it. But this I
read yesterday. I had this on the blog yesterday. We've
blown through our snow totals for November. So that's a good,
good thing.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yep, yeah, no, it was a good thing. I too,
was out of town and kind of missed out a
little bit, although it was in contact with the team. Yeah,
so we picked up. It was five straight days of
measurable snow. The most was on the Friday at nine
point three inches of heavy wet snow. That set a
record for Friday, and then that put us at twenty
(00:45):
inches for the month. Now, a normal month of November
seven point four inches over the whole month, so we're
at twenty inches. We don't need another snowflake for the
rest of the month. And that's the tenth snowiest November
on record, so that's pretty good. Here's the other good thing,
Mandy liquid equivalent. That was a heavy wet snow. It's
one point eight inches of moisture that's the eighth wettest November,
(01:08):
and it got us back on track towards the year.
We were lagging behind coming out of the dry summer
and fall, and now we're actually a little ahead, way
ahead for November and just about a tenth of an
inch ahead for the year. Good Years Drought Monitor comes
out tomorrow, hoping southeast color Rotol should see some improvement.
The front range, the farther of the north can go
(01:28):
not as much. The snow was better from the city
to the south and.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
East, so and the plains got a bunch of rain
even yesterday. Did I see that. Yes?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, with that little storm system that kicked off, they
got more moisture. So that was an area that had
a little bit of drought. The worst rout in the
state is actually in Boulder and Larimer County, to the
north and west of downtown Denver. That's the hardest hit area.
Those areas didn't do as well. They got some moisture,
but the east and southeastern plains. I drove back on
Sunday from Arizona and came up through northern New Mexico.
(01:58):
They got hit hard. Roads were closed. As most people know.
I twenty five was closed all the way through Saturday
night from northern New Mexico up to Pueblo in Colorado.
There's a lot of deep snow down there in the
southeast corner of the state.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah good, I mean that's good. We're off to a
good start our winter. Do we have any more snow
in the immediate future? What should we be looking at?
Do we need to worry about another storm before Thanksgiving
or around Thanksgiving?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
No? The only thing I can't see out with any
detail to Thanksgiving yet I am getting questions from people
about that. We're talking fifteen days out, so we've got
to wait a little bit. The pattern at the beginning
of the month was that November would be warmer and
drier than normal. I've told your time and time again.
When we look at those long Dame forecasts, it tells
you nothing about the day to day. It clearly didn't
(02:43):
account for the five days of snow we got, and
now the outlook for the range of the month is
slightly cooler and a little wetter. The only day I
have the chance for snow I'm sitting at work right
now putting the forecast together, is Tuesday. It's a very
low chance. It's another southern storm. I think southeast Colorado
will do better than Denver. In the front range. We
might get some snow showers and a little grassy accumulation,
(03:04):
but that's it. Beyond that, the next ten days look dry.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
All right.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I got a question from a listener. Michelle said, this, Okay,
riddle me this. A square foot patch of snow is
easy to shovel when it's fresh and fluffy. As that
same amount of snow melts in the same square foot,
it gets so much heavier.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Why So, here's the thing. So snow has weight. Obviously,
a normal what we would call fluffy snow, generally a
square foot as we Sell was talking about, is about
four pounds when you lift the shovel. We all know
that you feel it in your legs, your arms, your
back as you're lifting it. A wet snow, which is
(03:46):
what we saw with this last storm, that weight can
get up as much as ten to thirteen pounds per
square pot. Wow when yeah, it can, and you know
you think about the weight of that on your roof.
Most roofs, thankfully we have pitched roofs, but most roofs
can only handle twenty pounds of weight for square foot,
(04:06):
So those are heavy wet storms. That's where you know
you see sometimes these flat roofs guys moving snow off.
But here's the thing. That snow we had last week
was a heavy wet snow, and so while it fell
and it was light initially, if you let it go overnight,
the ground temperature, the pave, the temperature is going to
melt that bottom layer. And so instead of shoveling it
(04:27):
in a light, fluffy manner and you wait till the
next day, you've compacted it and you're lifting all of
the water component of the snow in the whole square foot,
so it can't you know, you're better off attacking it.
I heard you talk about Chuck going out three times.
When we have snow in the forecast of six or
seven or ten inches, it's better to chip away at it,
especially if it's going to be a heavy wet snow,
(04:49):
and this was a very heavy wet snow. As a
matter of fact, the temperatures during the whole event were
around thirty one to thirty five, so it wasn't a
terribly cold storm. But as we always talk about our altitude,
our mountains, our foothills are very efficient with the right
wind direction at cranking out snow despite the temperatures being
at or above freezing.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
All right, I got another one for you from the
text line, Mandy, please ask my weather guru if it's
better to get that twenty inches of snow at one
time or if it's better to have it spread out
over a month.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I mean, I would rather see it. Well, there's a
good way, in a bad way. Listen. I'll take it
every way we can get it. It's all good moisture.
I would rather see it come in small increments to
kind of spread it out. I think it works a
little better. You can melt a little here and there,
you can get some to soak in, as long as
the ground hasn't gone rock hard. So i'd rather see
that in this type of an event. If you go
(05:43):
outside right now and you've got deep snow, you're probably
listening to most of it running down your gutters, and
you can see it running down the streets. So i'd
rather see it. The other reason that i'd rather see
that it's easier to manage from a clearing standpoint and
from road conditions, So battling twenty inches at once, right,
let's take it in three eight inch storms or something
(06:04):
like that, where we can manage it a little better.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah, but then you've got to deal with three eight
inch storms instead of one twenty in storm.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
So from a personal perspective, it's like, it's like is
it better.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Is it better for our drought index or is it
better for you?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
That's what we're asking. I think really goes about two
very different answers.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, I think you're right. I think at your perspective,
get it out of the way, you know, pull the
band aid off all at once, or sprinkle it out
over time. Either way, I'll take the moisture.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
One more question, This one's a very interesting one. Years ago,
Senator John Thune proposed consolidating the one hundred and twenty
two local National Weather Service offices into six regional centers.
Not asking about the political ramifications, but what operational impact
would this have in your view?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You know, that's a that's a tough question for me answer,
you know, off the hip here, I am so used
to the regional offices, and I don't know what our
local offices. Excuse me, I don't know what a regional
office would look like. The reason I like the local
offices is is that people in the local offices are
like you and me. They live here and they get
(07:17):
to learn the topography and the nature, and they get
to see the growth city and understand it. I don't
know that somebody in the different part of the country
will have that understanding. Plus, we in the broadcast community
have a great working partnership with the folks at the
National Weather Service, So as they're preparing to put out
a forecast and talk about the products and the alerts
(07:37):
that they're going to issue, whether it's a winter weather
advisory or maybe a winter storm warning because the snow
is going to be deeper and have a bigger impact,
they're in communication with us so that we can then
be the voice and the mouthpiece to get it to
the public and that we're all on the same page.
And so that relationship, to me is very very valuable
when it comes to messaging on a storm and what
(07:59):
kind of impact the viewers, the listeners, your listeners, our
viewers should be prepared for.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
All right, that is a great answer off the hip.
So I'm looking really quickly because more questions have come on. No,
people are definitely saying I'd rather have it all at
once because they only want to deal with snow one
more time.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
So there you go, Dave Frasier, you can see. Yeah,
go ahead.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I was just saying those people who say that that's fantastic,
but just remember March and April, when you're out there
and there's four feet of snow in one storm, you
might change your mind.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, there you go, There you go, Dave Frasier.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Joy As always, we'll check in next week and find
out what maybe we can begin to see for the
Thanksgiving holiday.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Enjoy the rest of the nice sunny days through the weekend.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
I'll take this all day long. That is Dave Fraser
from Fox thirty one.
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.