Another Record High Set on Tuesday in our little Town

(posted by Keno on Wednesday, Feb 25 at 412 am)

Well, in this winter of 2025-26, that for the most part never arrived (weather-wise) here in Colorado, yet another record high temperature was reached on Tuesday, February 24 in the Crestone Baca, when our thermometer surpassed the old record for the date of 59 degrees - which was only set last year in 2025, as yesterday we reached a high of 60 degrees.

There's a part of me, actually a rather large part of me, that's sick of having to talk about world wide climate change, since deep down too many of our fellow humans refuse to believe it's so. I was speaking to my sister Pat Monday night, who is one of the last members of my family to still live back in the NYC area (on Long Island), where they have seen record snow this winter, and they just saw 25 inches this week (so far). Here in our little town, for the entire snow season, we have only see a bit more than 30 inches. But Pat had been in Pennsylvania the past week with our oldest sister Jeanne, who sadly is in her last few weeks of life. She didn't want to leave her side, but felt she had to get back home with the snowstorm about to hit, since her husband, who also isn't well, wasn't able to make the trip with her, and she didn't want him to be alone when the storm hit. So she left her ill sister and headed back home in a hurry. Unlike her older brother, she hates snow. But she said to me on the phone "Your climate change isn't happening here!". I hate to hear that lie from anybody, especially from my own sister who knows better, who deep down knows that global warming is 100% real and now out of control. But I also know that sometimes, life's bad things gets in the way of other things, like straight thinking. But climate change is real, and it won't go away if mankind continues to go in the direction that we are heading.

The warm weather we are having - along with the big snowstorm that hit NYC and the east coast - is all a part of our out of control climate change. It's not just happening here in the USA, but all over our planet. Some are sick of hearing about it, as sick as I am of having to talk/write about it. But if you think this is just normal weather that we been seeing this past winter (and for years now), you are being very foolish, indeed. But even worst, us humans are destroying our world, since while climate change to some degree is normal and has been happening since the beginning of time - which is true, it hasn't been out of control in the way it's been in the modern age. What's happening today is man-made climate change - and that's not normal at all! If we allow our insane leaders to continue to turn a blind eye to it, the people of planet Earth and the land we live on are all in great danger! The overwhelming majority of those who study meteorology, know this is a FACT, but - do you know this? I hope so, and I hope you try to take action on your own to help stop the insane politicians in D.C., who today are going totally in the wrong direction on this important matter! At the least, do this for your children/grandchildren and all the living creatures on the planet, who will suffer in the future, after you and I are long gone, if nothing is done to stop this madness.

Keno

Record High Temp Tied on Monday in the Crestone-Baca
(posted by Keno on Tuesday, Feb 17 at 120 am)

The Crestone/Baca NWS Weather Station in Chalet 1, tied a record high temperature on Monday, February 16, when the thermometer rose up to 55 degrees, tying the old record mark that was first set back in 2000; as the warmest winter ever seen in this area (so far) marched on with yet another record high being set or tied. We still have another full month plus to go with the winter of 2025-26, so we will see if we actually do break the all time record for warmest winter ever, and I'll note that several other towns and cities in Colorado are also at all time record levels right now for this same record.

Snow Report for Friday/Saturday Morning's Snowfall
(posted by Keno on Sat, Feb 14, 2026 at 100 pm)

Well, finally we got to see the higher end snowfall amounts forecasted instead of seeing lower end amounts, which has been the case for most of this snow season. Plus, I normally don't write about rainfall here, but since a new record was set on Friday, I'll start off with that. If you rather not read about rain, then just skip the next paragraph, but I think this following bit is interesting and important to state!

We got to see very rare measurable rain fall in February on Friday afternoon, this being only the second time since records been kept this has ever been seen in the Crestone/Baca. Record keeping only started being kept here in 1982. When I first moved to Crestone back in 2002, I spoke to a few of the old timers who lived here all their lives after a trace of rain fell on February 12, 2005. They told me that they had never before seen it rain - ever - in any winter month (including February) in the town of Crestone, and one of them was born and been living here since 1912. All of those folks are now gone today, but I'm glad I took the time to speak to them about this. BTW, and I sadly had to say this next line often today - but thanks to out of control climate change, what those elderly folks noted to me about it never raining in Crestone in any months of the winter (and they were going back 92 years from that day), was true, and sadly in just the last 20 years, all of that is no longer true, as it has now rained (and not just a trace), at least once in each month of all of our winter months now.

Okay, now to the snow totals that have come in the last 24 hours. Here at the Crestone/Baca Weather Station, located in Chalet 1, one block south of the Baca Firehouse at 8,085 feet. Here we saw 3.6 inches of snow, which started to accumulate after 9 pm Friday, after the rain turned to all snow. Total water precip came to 0.47 of an inch, and half of that fell as rain. But what a wonderful drink our area got from this event. I'll also note, unlike what was forecasted by the NWS, no, we didn't see any snow turn into rain here, it was the opposite that took place. I could not believe when I read that and still believe that isn't possible to occur in our foothills above 8,000 feet in the winter, or ever see that happen from December thru February anyway - and it didn't happen. Come to think of it, I've never seen that happen here in the fall or spring, either, but unlike the wintertime, that could happen here in non winter months, and will some day the way global warming is taking place.

Next up, I'll finish the other 2 reports in from Chalet 1. From Paul's place located on Panorama Way, at 8,600 feet, he measured 3.5 inches.... and on Arrowhead Way(sorry, I can't recall the elevation there), just 2.0 inches reported. Now let's head north into the town of Crestone where we have another 2 reporters. First report in, from South Birch Street at the town line (just under 8,000 feet): "A scant 2 inches" reported. Then a bit to the east and a little higher up at 8,165 feet, near McAlpine Ranch, on East Galena Ave, they reported 2.5 inches. Now our last report from a local spotter, heading out into the valley, from out in the Grants, our faithful spotters there also reported 2.5 inches of snow over by Brook Trout Rd. west of Wagon Wheel. Do note while the Grants usually see less snow than our foothills and mountains, this storm was centered to the south, and in those cases, no, the Grants could actually see more snow fall than locations to their north.

Now some non-spotter reports from nearby. First, from the South Colony Snow Report, with South Colony located due east of Crestone/Baca in our mountains at 10,800 feet. Do note that this report comes in once a day at 2 am - and it was still snowing here and also up there at that time, so it's not a total snow report for this storm. But what was reported was 7.0 inches of new snow and a snowpack of 28 inches. That's still a very low snowpack reading, at just 64% of normal - but, it's no longer showing the lowest snowpack reading ever reported from this location anymore, either. The snowpack a few days ago was all the way down to just 49% of normal! So all of us should be happy to see this big increases of the snow on the ground up there and from where we get our drinking water.

Okay next, I used to, up until about 2 years ago, always report the local snow totals that came in from CoCoRaHS - the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network, another place I used to report to daily myself. But being elderly got in my way of doing a lot of things I used to do, including that and nowadays, I only report daily to the NWS. I had promised CoCoRaHS that since I was one of their first spotters (back around 25 years ago when they started up), that I would still report to them after any major weather events we might have here - and for all snowfalls, but I never remember to do so. Today for whatever reason, I did, and this was only my second report to them this snow season (that officially starts on July 1 of every year, I reported once early last December). But the thing is, they don't have anybody really left from this area, in fact, only one reporter from the northern SLV, and that person is in Saguache. Over there across the valley from us, they had little snow, 0.7 of an inch and 0.24 of an inch of water from this event. That reading came from 7am this morning, so it is a compete report on this past snowfall. There was also a report from Alamosa, there they only saw one inch of new snow along with 0.32 of an inch of water. Do note that on the other side of our mountains (the Westcliffe area), there were 3 or 4 reports - but while they are very close to us as the crow flies, weather wise, they never see the same weather conditions that we see, so I don't ever take reports from that area. However, this time, they did see pretty much the same amount of snow fall on their side of our main mountains (well, just a bit more, with 3 plus inches on average). If you would like to check out our local area map at CoCoRaHS, you can do so here, once there you can zoom in and out and look all over Colorado, or the U.S. and Canada, if you like and have the time. Just click on any dot you see on the map and you will see the local report from that location you clicked on!

Okay, so have I over written up this report yet again? Yes, perhaps, so please let me close this out now. As usual, I want to thank all of our local spotters for sending in their reports, and I'll add anything new that might come in later today.

Keno