Crestone Weather Center
Crestone, Colorado

 

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Public Information Statement

 

Snow Reports covering late Sunday Night and Monday morning
(Posted by Keno at 140 pm on Jan 14)

For this report we'll start out backwards from the way we usually start, going into the Grants first. The snow fall, which BTW, took place with partly cloudy skies throughout the early morning hours, other than the skies were totally covered over at the start Sunday night for about an hour. After that, it was light snow and even mostly clear for a bit after it first started up. This told me there must have been less snow in the Grants, and when the spotter reports came in, that was confirmed, not that any other location had a lot of snow fall in this one, which has been the case for our entire snow season so far. So, starting with the Grants, off Camino Real and Willow Trail at 7,681 feet, this location reported  0.1". Then over to Brook Trout Rd, west of Wagon Wheel, at 7,800 feet, they measured 0.2". Next we move up to Chalet 2, by Carefree and Jubilant at 8,000 feet, where 0.5" accumulated. Next up, let's head over to the outskirts of the town of Crestone, starting at E Galena Ave, 1/4 mile east of Crestone, at 8,150 feet, where 1.0 inch even was measured. Then we head on over to Chalet 1, where at the very east end of the Chalet at 8,600 feet plus they saw 1.0 of fluff. Then at Arrowhead Way, at 8,215 feet, 0.8" of power, and finally at my place in CI, at the official Crestone/Baca Weather Station (that's what the NWS calls it), located 2 blocks south of the Baca firehouse at 8,085 feet, I measured a total of 0.7" of snow... but only 0.02 of and inch of water. So yes, very little water for us came from this round of snow. That, BTW, can be confirmed from our reports from high up, as at our automated weather station at South Colony, located at 10,800 feet notes that the observed snowpack as of this morning is only at 28 inches, which is below normal. Because I forgot to check the totals for yesterday's total snow, if I do that, well, it's gone by the next day and I can only can see the snowpack total if I'm a day late. So, my bad!

I thank all of our local snow spotters for their excellent volunteer work! Plus, I'm sorry for the very late report, I seem to be doing that a lot of late.


Snow Reports covering Monday Night and Tuesday Morning's Snow Event
(Posted by Keno at 110 am on Jan 8, 2025, updated at 11 am, Jan 8)

This report covers the snowfall we saw on Monday Night into Tuesday Morning. I'll start off with my report from the official Crestone Baca Weather Center in Chalet 1, located at 8,085 feet, two blocks south of the Baca Fire Station, where I measured 0.7" Monday night and 1.7' on Tuesday for a total of 2.4". The amounted of water we received over the 2 day period after the snow was melted down came to 0.15". The snowpack as of 5pm was 2.5". From our spotters who are also in Chalet 1 comes the following reports: From Paul, Crestone's longest reporting weather spotter (he started in the early 1980s if I recall correctly), and he reports from the highest spot in Chalet 1 and in all of the Baca, at 8,600 feet, where he recorded 2.0" as of 11am Tuesday. Then up next comes from Arrowhead Way in Chalet 1 where 1.9" was recorded. Then the last report from Chalet 1 from Panorama Way (at 8,000 ft.), taken at 11am, was 2.3". Up next comes from Camino del Oro (north of the Baca Grande golf course at the Baca Townhomes), at 7,730 feet, where 1.8" of snow was measured along with 0.10" of water. Okay, let's head northeast of there where we have the town of Crestone, with the first report coming in from one of the highest locations just outside of the town of Crestone, on E Galena Ave, 1/4 mi E of town at 8,150 ft, with this report taken at 10 am Tuesday, where a total of 1.7" of snow was seen. Then the next report comes from Birch St at the southern town line (around 7,900 ft), where 2" was noted at 8:30 am Tuesday - while it was still snowing (so more than likely this location saw a bit more than that by the time the snow ended). Then from out in the Grants (in the SLV), with the first report from near Brook Trout Rd. west of Wagon Wheel, at 7,800 feet, where Jan measured 1.5", and then the second report from the Grants comes in from near Camino Real and Willow Trail, at 7,681 feet, where 1.8" was recorded. Then from outside of the greater Crestone area, out at the bottom of La Veta Pass, well east of the town of Fort Garland, where my daughter Jackie lives at 8,600 ft, they also saw 1.8" of snow. Finally, from in the valley, at downtown Moffat, just north of the school, at 7,566 feet, my grandson Coop noted to me that they saw just under an inch of snow over there.

The report from way up high in our mountains to our east, at South Colony, located at 10,800 feet (a report that isn't always available), notes the total snow pack at 7 pm on Jan 7, being at 28", with 5" of new snow combined from Monday and Tuesday reports. For the record up there, they see a average annual snowfall of 200-300 inches, with an average peak snowpack of 100-150 inches. However, in the last several years that total has gone down and is a lot less then it used to be, because of out of control man-made climate change. For right now, the current 28" snowpack reading is 75% of normal, which in layman's words means, that it's far below average for this time of year.

Update at 11am: these reports came in late, but late is better than never: From our lone spotter in Chalet 2, located near Carefree and Jubilant, elevation 8,000 feet, they reported 2.5" of snow falling on Monday nite and Tuesday morning. Then a few blocks from here in Chalet 1, our reporter on Arrowhead Way reported a trace of new snow overnight. We didn't see any of that here, as I was up the entire night, but I noticed that one minute it would be clear and the next cloudy. So I'm not surprised by that and yes, it can snow in one spot and not in another close by - and why we like to see even trace reports come in so I can note that, if not always online, always in my daily NWS report. 

So that does it for the snow reports. As usual, I thank all of our spotters for their important snow reports!


Winter & Snow Advisories and Warnings Explanations


It's been at least a couple of years, maybe 3 or 4, that I last posted this, and I like to repost it every few years to remind everybody what each advisory covers. I really should have posted this in late October, as we can see these conditions anytime starting in September/October and have already had them issued here this season.

 

All of the following are issued when hazardous winter weather is occurring, imminent or likely. I'm only noting the warnings we see here and will skip the other winter advisories (like a freezing rain or drizzle advisory) that the National Weather Service (NWS) issues elsewhere, since that kind of weather never really ever occurs in our neck of the woods:

- A Winter Weather Advisory is issued for less serious winter weather conditions than warnings - but will still cause significant inconvenience.
- A Winter Storm Watch is issued when conditions are favorable for significant winter weather and/or blizzard conditions within the next three days, but the timing, intensity, or occurrence may still be uncertain.
- A Winter Storm Warning is issued when a combination of heavy snow, blowing snow, and possibly ice mixed with snow is expected to impact the area. Time to act! If caution is not exercised, such storms could lead to situations that may threaten life or property
- A Blizzard Warning is issued when the combination of strong wind, low visibility, and heavy snow will significantly impact daily life. Plus once again, if caution is not exercised, such storms could lead to situations that may threaten life or property. Blizzard conditions are also met when visibility in falling and blowing snow reaches ¼ mile or less.

- A Snow Squall Warning is an alert from the NWS that indicates a short, intense burst of heavy snowfall that can create dangerous driving conditions
- A Wind Chill Watch is issued when Wind Chill Warning criteria are possible in the next 12 to 36 hours.
- A Wind Chill Warning is issued for wind chills of at least minus 25 degrees on the plains, and minus 35 degrees in the mountains.


Some more on this:

A Blizzard Warning has different criterias for different areas. For one to be issued in the Rocky Mountains, the conditions noted above apply, but winds must be in excess of 50 mph. This criteria also applies to our Foothills and all higher elevations. For our Mountain Valleys and the Colorado Great Plains, the conditions noted above again apply, but winds don't have to be as high, as speeds of 35 mph or higher at lower elevations is all it takes for a Blizzard Warning to be issued. Plus, while large amounts of snow are usually expected, little or no snow at all can be expected when such a warning is issued, since blowing snow from past storms also can meet criteria for a Blizzard Warning to be issued.

 

Heavy snow criteria for Colorado also representative values applied by area: Mountains: 8 inches of snow in 12 hours and/or 12 or more inches in 24 hours. Lower elevations: 6 inches of snow in 12 hours and/or 8 or more inches in 24 hours.

 

For a Wind Chill Watch or Warning: As the wind increases, the body is cooled at a faster rate. The “wind chill” is a way for meteorologists to communicate what the combination of wind and temperature “feels like” to exposed skin. While wind chills negatively affect our bodies - and our pets bodies, they have no effects on other things like your car. While a vehicle's battery and other engine parts are effected negatively by the cold, they aren't effected by wind chill.

 

Our area rarely sees Snow Squall Warnigs issued here in the winter, as snow squalls are more likely to occuar in the spring here, plus they usually don't last all day long around here like they do in the U.S. Great Lakes. But yes, we can still see them in the winter months here, too.


 A Freeze Watch and a Freeze Warning are issued when freezing conditions are possible in the next 12 to 36 hours. They are only issued during the growing season when widespread temperatures are expected to drop to below 32 degrees. Since these last two watches and warnings have already been issued and already reached this fall on more than two days, they will no longer be issued for the rest of this season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 




 

 

 

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