December 17, 2025 • 8 mins
DAVE FRASER JOINS AT 12:30 FOR WEATHER WEDNESDAY And I'll ask Fox 31's Chief Meteorologist when it will feel like winter here. I realize I shouldn't complain but high 60s is too high for me right now.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dave Fraser, Fox thirty one's chief Meet. It's chief with
an F at the end, not a P. Chief Meteorologist.
Dave Fraser joins us. Okay, Dave, you know it's another Wednesday.
It's another wacky weather day. I love the way we've
think this up. It's so beautiful. But what actually is
happening right now?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Well, I mean last week we had when I was
talking to you, we were dealing with a similar event.
We had a windy day.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
We had high.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Wind warnings in the foothills where they are in place
again today. That wind continued last Thursday. Right now, the
wind is just getting underway in the foothills. You just
heard the reports from your own Jonathan. We've got some
forty fives and sixty mile proud guys.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
They're way up high.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Think a birthed pass and some of the higher terrain.
What will happen is the forecast for the strongest winds
is going to be from about one to five, so
we're about a half an hour out to get things rolling,
and the wind will literally translate or roll down the
foothills out across those western areas where they're proactively shutting
(01:03):
down the roads like you just reported Highway ninety three,
for instance, between Boulder and Golden and then the wind
will come out to I twenty five and around.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Five or six o'clock.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
We expect the wind, the strongest of the wind to
then retreat quickly back up the foothills, and then there
will be a secondary push of wind over the open
eastern plains, but not as strong. So expect the wind
to start to pick up. It'll come out of the
west and speeds will be about thirty to.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Sixty is what we're thinking. This has been.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
A very interesting forty eight hours as it comes to
a wind event. I have never seen such hype on
a wind event. I think excel with the power outages
added to that, I think the school closes.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
I've never seen anything like that, but it has been
I was saying today, Rug.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
What's been a challenge for I think those of us
in the meteorology field is and especially the those of
us you know, with the voice being on television or
on the radio and so forth, is trying to push
back against the wave of social media height that was
just over the top and trying to bring people down
off the ledge and say listen, this is a wind
(02:16):
event it gets windy and Colorado. And I understand. I
agree with your I listened to you just a few
minutes ago with your ramp on Excel and what they're
doing and why when they, you know, got the billion
dollar lawsuit from the Marshall fire. They're being proactive. I
get it. But the message I'm getting, you know, emails
from friends and stuff like talking about ninety hundred miles
per hour winds that are not even in the high
(02:38):
wind warning, right, the message just went rolling about as
fast as the wind's going to go this afternoon.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So wait a minute, So I have I created my
first ever when will a high profile a vehicle get
tumped over? And I got two eleven am I early
for that. Should I back it up a little bit
toll like three thirty four, maybe right around five pm?
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I would say, if there's money involved, I would hold
off till maybe after three o'clock. The problem is going
to be they closed those prone areas. There's not going
to be any high program shcles on those areas, right,
so they're trying to avoid that. And I get the
proactive thing. I get it.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I understand, but you know you.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Mentioned one of the things that we've been talking about
in the newsroom. Is we were getting ready to you know,
cover the event. Is you mentioned that, you know, Excel
is the one that is you know, doing the power,
you know, turning off the power, but there are a
lot of communities that don't get their power from Excel.
And so like I'm down here in Douglas County and
(03:38):
my provider is Core. Not much coming out of Core
as far as what they might do or turning off
power any concerns. But then you mentioned Longman. Longman was
kind of interesting and it could be a case study
for what maybe other power grids and companies need to do.
They were proactive. They even went out early, we reported
last night and picked up trash before the wind was
(04:00):
supposed to roll in so that it wasn't blowing all
over the neighborhoods. And whatever they're doing with their power grid,
they were not expected to have to turn off power.
So it's really interesting to see what's plating out in
the power and that is not anything that I have
any knowledge of beyond you know, like a Rod was saying, you.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Get it, the whole solar.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Panel thing, this is just way outside of our understanding.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
But like I said, this is a typical.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
In my opinion, wind event. It's a chinook wind, it's
a snow eater. It's strong, but it doesn't last long.
I had to push back so hard last.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Night on listen, guys, this is not an all day event.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I must have said a dozen times. You're not going
to find the wind when you step out in the morning.
It's going to be from about noon to six, more
so one to five. It'll literally come like a rolling
snowball down the foothills out across High twenty five. The
farther east you go, it'll fan out and kind of
slow down a little bit, even though it'll stay breezy.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
On the eastern planes.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And that'll be it, and hopefully we get out of this.
The biggest message I had last night, Mandy was standing
on my soapbox saying, please, for the love of God,
calm down anything it causes a spark, yeah, or do
anything with an open flame.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
And if we can do that and avoid.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Any source of a fire that could be fanned by
these strong winds, then we escape this without any problems
other than the huge inconvenience of the power being turned off.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Amen to that. I have another weather question for you
before we get away from this. This is from Cindy
and it's a deep one. You ready put on your
thinking cap here, Dave Mandy, I have a climate question
for Dave. I'm trying to figure out the why behind
different climates, specifically why rainforests get all the perks while
arid areas like the northwest New Mexico get skipped over
(05:42):
like a bad song on the playlist. What's the main
culprit here? Is it topography, the jet stream or some
ocean drama. I don't know about. I know whether eventually wait,
she's not done. I know whether eventually makes climate. So
I'd love to know why northwest New Mexico is so dry.
Is there a sightific reason or is it just because
Mother Nature has a vendeta against me? Specifically that from Cindy.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
It's not a vendetta. I can tell you that. That's
a longer question than I can answer. But the reality
is it is ocean driven. It is jet stream driven.
There are certain areas so West coasts near cold climate
waters Pacific ocean temperature and stuff tend to be drier
than those that have access to a higher humidity like
(06:28):
the rainforests and stuff. You have all sorts of different.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Climates across the globe.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Based on latitude, longitude, proximity to water bodies and so forth,
and of course that is all influenced. The definition of
weather is.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Variable, and that's the day to day challenges.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
We as meteorologists struggle to come up with the forecast
of what's going to happen, when, where, what time, how much,
how cold, how strong will the wind be? The climate
is a thirty year average of what you might expect
in those areas. Coming from Florida, you might have an
understanding of what the weather might be on a general
pattern through the year, and the same would be true
(07:07):
for those of us here in Colorado. We know our falls,
we know our snow seasons and so forth. So it's
a thirty year average. And by the way, that average
is a rolling average, so you drop one year off,
you add another one on, and sometimes those numbers change
a little bit over the course of time.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
All right, then that was pretty good for a short answer.
One Texter said this, Dave, and I'm not sure how
accurate it is.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Mandy.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Long lined lions get power from the Platte River Authority
and most of the power lines are buried, So perhaps
that is the difference.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
That and you made a really good point. And again
I don't want to go down.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
The rabbit hole of politics when it comes to this.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Because I know nothing about the energy business when it
comes to their responsibilities and the cost of maintaining lines.
But I do think the question becomes, given the fact
that we are a very wind prone area, why isn't
there being more to get those lines down below ground,
especially in those areas where we know that when we
(08:05):
get these wind events, the power lines are susceptible. Think
of Coal Creek Canyon. It's like a blow torch when
the wind comes rolling down that canyon and blast out
by Highway ninety three and seventy two. So if we
can at least protect the higher, more susceptible areas, maybe
not the entire state of Colorado might be helpful.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Am end of that. That's Dave Fraser. Dave, we will
talk to you next year, buddy, because you're off, I'm off,
so we'll have weather Wednesday. January seventh will be the
next weather Wednesday. Have a wonderful holiday and enjoy your
time off.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
And I and the same to you and I hope
everybody does, because this will be our last chance to
tell them. And unfortunately, I will tell you that the forecast.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
For Christmas is dry and warm right now, forecasting around
sixty five.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So I'll leave you. I'll leave you with that grench
of a forecast, that everybody enjoy it, and let's look
forward to twenty twenty six, all right, Thanks Dave Fraser,
Dave Fraser, Fox thirty one's chief Meet. It's chief with
an F at the end, not a P. Chief Meteorologist.
Dave Fraser joins us. Okay, Dave, you know it's another Wednesday.
It's another wacky weather day. I love the way we've
think this up. It's so beautiful. But what actually is
happening right now?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Well, I mean last week we had when I was
talking to you, we were dealing with a similar event.
We had a windy day.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
We had high.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Wind warnings in the foothills where they are in place
again today. That wind continued last Thursday. Right now, the
wind is just getting underway in the foothills. You just
heard the reports from your own Jonathan. We've got some
forty fives and sixty mile proud guys.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
They're way up high.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Think a birthed pass and some of the higher terrain.
What will happen is the forecast for the strongest winds
is going to be from about one to five, so
we're about a half an hour out to get things rolling,
and the wind will literally translate or roll down the
foothills out across those western areas where they're proactively shutting
(01:03):
down the roads like you just reported Highway ninety three,
for instance, between Boulder and Golden and then the wind
will come out to I twenty five and around.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Five or six o'clock.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
We expect the wind, the strongest of the wind to
then retreat quickly back up the foothills, and then there
will be a secondary push of wind over the open
eastern plains, but not as strong. So expect the wind
to start to pick up. It'll come out of the
west and speeds will be about thirty to.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Sixty is what we're thinking. This has been.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
A very interesting forty eight hours as it comes to
a wind event. I have never seen such hype on
a wind event. I think excel with the power outages
added to that, I think the school closes.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
I've never seen anything like that, but it has been
I was saying today, Rug.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
What's been a challenge for I think those of us
in the meteorology field is and especially the those of
us you know, with the voice being on television or
on the radio and so forth, is trying to push
back against the wave of social media height that was
just over the top and trying to bring people down
off the ledge and say listen, this is a wind
(02:16):
event it gets windy and Colorado. And I understand. I
agree with your I listened to you just a few
minutes ago with your ramp on Excel and what they're
doing and why when they, you know, got the billion
dollar lawsuit from the Marshall fire. They're being proactive. I
get it. But the message I'm getting, you know, emails
from friends and stuff like talking about ninety hundred miles
per hour winds that are not even in the high
(02:38):
wind warning, right, the message just went rolling about as
fast as the wind's going to go this afternoon.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So wait a minute, So I have I created my
first ever when will a high profile a vehicle get
tumped over? And I got two eleven am I early
for that. Should I back it up a little bit
toll like three thirty four, maybe right around five pm?
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I would say, if there's money involved, I would hold
off till maybe after three o'clock. The problem is going
to be they closed those prone areas. There's not going
to be any high program shcles on those areas, right,
so they're trying to avoid that. And I get the
proactive thing. I get it.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I understand, but you know you.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Mentioned one of the things that we've been talking about
in the newsroom. Is we were getting ready to you know,
cover the event. Is you mentioned that, you know, Excel
is the one that is you know, doing the power,
you know, turning off the power, but there are a
lot of communities that don't get their power from Excel.
And so like I'm down here in Douglas County and
(03:38):
my provider is Core. Not much coming out of Core
as far as what they might do or turning off
power any concerns. But then you mentioned Longman. Longman was
kind of interesting and it could be a case study
for what maybe other power grids and companies need to do.
They were proactive. They even went out early, we reported
last night and picked up trash before the wind was
(04:00):
supposed to roll in so that it wasn't blowing all
over the neighborhoods. And whatever they're doing with their power grid,
they were not expected to have to turn off power.
So it's really interesting to see what's plating out in
the power and that is not anything that I have
any knowledge of beyond you know, like a Rod was saying, you.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Get it, the whole solar.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Panel thing, this is just way outside of our understanding.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
But like I said, this is a typical.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
In my opinion, wind event. It's a chinook wind, it's
a snow eater. It's strong, but it doesn't last long.
I had to push back so hard last.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Night on listen, guys, this is not an all day event.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I must have said a dozen times. You're not going
to find the wind when you step out in the morning.
It's going to be from about noon to six, more
so one to five. It'll literally come like a rolling
snowball down the foothills out across High twenty five. The
farther east you go, it'll fan out and kind of
slow down a little bit, even though it'll stay breezy.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
On the eastern planes.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And that'll be it, and hopefully we get out of this.
The biggest message I had last night, Mandy was standing
on my soapbox saying, please, for the love of God,
calm down anything it causes a spark, yeah, or do
anything with an open flame.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
And if we can do that and avoid.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Any source of a fire that could be fanned by
these strong winds, then we escape this without any problems
other than the huge inconvenience of the power being turned off.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Amen to that. I have another weather question for you
before we get away from this. This is from Cindy
and it's a deep one. You ready put on your
thinking cap here, Dave Mandy, I have a climate question
for Dave. I'm trying to figure out the why behind
different climates, specifically why rainforests get all the perks while
arid areas like the northwest New Mexico get skipped over
(05:42):
like a bad song on the playlist. What's the main
culprit here? Is it topography, the jet stream or some
ocean drama. I don't know about. I know whether eventually wait,
she's not done. I know whether eventually makes climate. So
I'd love to know why northwest New Mexico is so dry.
Is there a sightific reason or is it just because
Mother Nature has a vendeta against me? Specifically that from Cindy.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
It's not a vendetta. I can tell you that. That's
a longer question than I can answer. But the reality
is it is ocean driven. It is jet stream driven.
There are certain areas so West coasts near cold climate
waters Pacific ocean temperature and stuff tend to be drier
than those that have access to a higher humidity like
(06:28):
the rainforests and stuff. You have all sorts of different.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Climates across the globe.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Based on latitude, longitude, proximity to water bodies and so forth,
and of course that is all influenced. The definition of
weather is.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Variable, and that's the day to day challenges.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
We as meteorologists struggle to come up with the forecast
of what's going to happen, when, where, what time, how much,
how cold, how strong will the wind be? The climate
is a thirty year average of what you might expect
in those areas. Coming from Florida, you might have an
understanding of what the weather might be on a general
pattern through the year, and the same would be true
(07:07):
for those of us here in Colorado. We know our falls,
we know our snow seasons and so forth. So it's
a thirty year average. And by the way, that average
is a rolling average, so you drop one year off,
you add another one on, and sometimes those numbers change
a little bit over the course of time.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
All right, then that was pretty good for a short answer.
One Texter said this, Dave, and I'm not sure how
accurate it is.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Mandy.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Long lined lions get power from the Platte River Authority
and most of the power lines are buried, So perhaps
that is the difference.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
That and you made a really good point. And again
I don't want to go down.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
The rabbit hole of politics when it comes to this.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Because I know nothing about the energy business when it
comes to their responsibilities and the cost of maintaining lines.
But I do think the question becomes, given the fact
that we are a very wind prone area, why isn't
there being more to get those lines down below ground,
especially in those areas where we know that when we
(08:05):
get these wind events, the power lines are susceptible. Think
of Coal Creek Canyon. It's like a blow torch when
the wind comes rolling down that canyon and blast out
by Highway ninety three and seventy two. So if we
can at least protect the higher, more susceptible areas, maybe
not the entire state of Colorado might be helpful.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Am end of that. That's Dave Fraser. Dave, we will
talk to you next year, buddy, because you're off, I'm off,
so we'll have weather Wednesday. January seventh will be the
next weather Wednesday. Have a wonderful holiday and enjoy your
time off.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
And I and the same to you and I hope
everybody does, because this will be our last chance to
tell them. And unfortunately, I will tell you that the forecast.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
For Christmas is dry and warm right now, forecasting around
sixty five.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So I'll leave you. I'll leave you with that grench
of a forecast, that everybody enjoy it, and let's look
forward to twenty twenty six, all right, Thanks Dave Fraser,
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
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