Monday, December 30, 2013
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Town of Parker Issues Mountain Lion Warning
Even though Parker is located 20 miles from the foothills, mountain lions have been spotted in the Parker area since December 3.
News Link
News Link
Friday, December 27, 2013
2013 Was Quite a Year for Colorado Natural Hazard Events
Extreme weather in Colorado was, well..... extreme this year. The year started with a mild and dry winter and a continuation of the severe drought of 2012. In early June, a wildfire in the Black Forest area between Denver and Colorado Springs became the costliest fire in Colorado history with over 400 homes destroyed and 2 people killed. Later in June, the West Fork fire ravaged the San Juan mountains near the town of South Fork and charred over 100,000 acres to become the second largest wildfire in Colorado history.
Just when things were looking hot and dry, a switch flipped somewhere and record rainfall, floods and mudslides followed. A strong monsoon season started in Colorado in mid-July and continued all the way through September, culminating in the extensive floods along the Front Range. The monsoon started off with a 6 inch rain that flooded tiny Greenhorn Creek and the town of Rye, located south of Pueblo. Then daily late afternoon thunderstorms produced heavy rainfall that caused debris flows from the 2012 wildfire burn scars above Fountain Creek and Hwy 24 through Manitou Springs and the burn scars above the Poudre River and Hwy 14 west of Fort Collins. Each area had 5 debris flows, which swept away cars and stranded other motorists. 1 person was killed by flooding in Manitou Springs and another killed by flooding along Sand Creek in Colorado Springs.
The monsoon expanded to most of the state and caused flash flooding, mudslides and rockslides across Colorado. Golf ball to baseball-sized hail piled up over a foot deep in two separate storms near Fort Collins and Greeley, while lightning struck 9 field workers near Greeley and 12 soldiers at Fort Carson. Aurora received 2.9 inches of rain that flooded streets in several feet of water.
That was just the warmup for the great flood of 2013. Starting on Tuesday September 10, it rained hard for 4 days straight with record rainfall amounts in the area around Boulder up to Fort Collins. Flash flooding hit Boulder, Lyons and Big Thompson Canyon when the storm intensified on Thursday, September 12 taking out bridges, hundreds of miles of roadway and isolating Lyons and part of Longmont along with many small mountain communities. Rockslides inundated houses in the small mountain town of Jamestown west of Boulder, killing one person and there were many reports of a "20 foot wall of water" coming down normally small creeks that cutoff and stranded residents and rescue workers. As the rains continued and the water poured out of the mountains, the South Platte River flooded Greeley washing out roads and highway bridges on Friday.
During the same week of September 10, flooding was also happening from Denver to Colorado Springs and Durango. Aurora had waist deep water while Bear Creek flooded in Evergreen washing out roads and damaging the business area. There was concern that the dam in Evergreen, which was overtopped, was going to fail and send a wall of water downstream through Morrison. Bear Creek rose 9 feet in Morrison but didn't quite make it to flood stage. Bear Creek Dam, built after the 1965 floods, did a good job of containing the deluge as water levels in the reservoir rose 30 feet. Manitou Springs and Fountain Creek flooded again during the week, while the Animas River flooded near Durango. Road repairs and restoration of towns and businesses continues to this day with somewhere near $2 billion in damages and 8 people killed by the great flood of 2013.
From one extreme to the other, the year ended with a week long sub-zero cold snap, not experienced on the Front Range and west slope since 1985. December 4-9 overnight temperatures were below zero as much as -15. Clear Creek froze solid creating an ice dam that caused flooding of an RV park in Golden.
2013 had a number of incidents occur on hiking trails. Moose attacks on three separate occasions sent hikers to hospitals with broken bones and head injuries. A rockslide in Deer Creek Canyon Park seriously injured 2 high school hikers in a party of 5 in January. They were flown by the Flight for Life to a Denver hospital about 3 hours after the incident. In October, a large rockslide killed 5 family members hiking on the Chalk Creek trail near the base of Mt. Princeton. A 6th member of the party survived with broken bones when her Dad shielded her and pushed her out of the way.
West Nile virus is back on the rise with the 4th highest number of cases since it appeared in Colorado in 2002. There were 313 cases with 7 fatalities with about half the total in Larimer county in the Fort Collins-Greeley-Longmont area.
There were over 11,000 deer-vehicle collisions in 2013 with 3 people killed. There were 2 minor bear attack incidents in 2013. In October, a rare coyote attack injured a 22-year old Longmont man with bites on the face and hands.
Overall an active year for natural hazards but consistent with historical rates.
Just when things were looking hot and dry, a switch flipped somewhere and record rainfall, floods and mudslides followed. A strong monsoon season started in Colorado in mid-July and continued all the way through September, culminating in the extensive floods along the Front Range. The monsoon started off with a 6 inch rain that flooded tiny Greenhorn Creek and the town of Rye, located south of Pueblo. Then daily late afternoon thunderstorms produced heavy rainfall that caused debris flows from the 2012 wildfire burn scars above Fountain Creek and Hwy 24 through Manitou Springs and the burn scars above the Poudre River and Hwy 14 west of Fort Collins. Each area had 5 debris flows, which swept away cars and stranded other motorists. 1 person was killed by flooding in Manitou Springs and another killed by flooding along Sand Creek in Colorado Springs.
The monsoon expanded to most of the state and caused flash flooding, mudslides and rockslides across Colorado. Golf ball to baseball-sized hail piled up over a foot deep in two separate storms near Fort Collins and Greeley, while lightning struck 9 field workers near Greeley and 12 soldiers at Fort Carson. Aurora received 2.9 inches of rain that flooded streets in several feet of water.
That was just the warmup for the great flood of 2013. Starting on Tuesday September 10, it rained hard for 4 days straight with record rainfall amounts in the area around Boulder up to Fort Collins. Flash flooding hit Boulder, Lyons and Big Thompson Canyon when the storm intensified on Thursday, September 12 taking out bridges, hundreds of miles of roadway and isolating Lyons and part of Longmont along with many small mountain communities. Rockslides inundated houses in the small mountain town of Jamestown west of Boulder, killing one person and there were many reports of a "20 foot wall of water" coming down normally small creeks that cutoff and stranded residents and rescue workers. As the rains continued and the water poured out of the mountains, the South Platte River flooded Greeley washing out roads and highway bridges on Friday.
During the same week of September 10, flooding was also happening from Denver to Colorado Springs and Durango. Aurora had waist deep water while Bear Creek flooded in Evergreen washing out roads and damaging the business area. There was concern that the dam in Evergreen, which was overtopped, was going to fail and send a wall of water downstream through Morrison. Bear Creek rose 9 feet in Morrison but didn't quite make it to flood stage. Bear Creek Dam, built after the 1965 floods, did a good job of containing the deluge as water levels in the reservoir rose 30 feet. Manitou Springs and Fountain Creek flooded again during the week, while the Animas River flooded near Durango. Road repairs and restoration of towns and businesses continues to this day with somewhere near $2 billion in damages and 8 people killed by the great flood of 2013.
From one extreme to the other, the year ended with a week long sub-zero cold snap, not experienced on the Front Range and west slope since 1985. December 4-9 overnight temperatures were below zero as much as -15. Clear Creek froze solid creating an ice dam that caused flooding of an RV park in Golden.
2013 had a number of incidents occur on hiking trails. Moose attacks on three separate occasions sent hikers to hospitals with broken bones and head injuries. A rockslide in Deer Creek Canyon Park seriously injured 2 high school hikers in a party of 5 in January. They were flown by the Flight for Life to a Denver hospital about 3 hours after the incident. In October, a large rockslide killed 5 family members hiking on the Chalk Creek trail near the base of Mt. Princeton. A 6th member of the party survived with broken bones when her Dad shielded her and pushed her out of the way.
West Nile virus is back on the rise with the 4th highest number of cases since it appeared in Colorado in 2002. There were 313 cases with 7 fatalities with about half the total in Larimer county in the Fort Collins-Greeley-Longmont area.
There were over 11,000 deer-vehicle collisions in 2013 with 3 people killed. There were 2 minor bear attack incidents in 2013. In October, a rare coyote attack injured a 22-year old Longmont man with bites on the face and hands.
Overall an active year for natural hazards but consistent with historical rates.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Heritage High School in Littleton Locks Down after Mountain Lion Spotted
Even though the cougar probably wouldn't have attacked anybody, probably better safe than sorry.
News Link
News Link
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Friday, December 13, 2013
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Are Meteor Strikes About to Rise?
A meteor over Arizona exploded causing houses to shake. Somewhat less intense than the meteor that exploded over Russia in February but given that these two cases are the only ones since the air blast in Russia in 1908, are we seeing a cyclical increase?
News link
News link
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Cold Snap Over
A week of subzero weather is over. There were a couple of frostbite cases taken in at local hospitals.
The last time a long cold snap hit the Front Range was in February, 1985. That one was cold enough to freeze water lines 4 to 6 feet underground.
CU Professor Warns of Solar Flare Impacts
Study of a coronal mass ejection in 2012 showed it was bigger than the Carrington event of 1859. The 2012 storm was directed away from the earth but had it been a week earlier, the sun's position would have blasted it directly at the earth.
News Link
News Link
Monday, December 9, 2013
Bear Family Wintering in Den in Colorado Springs Neighborhood
A detailed account of recent happenings.
News Link
News Link
Bird Botulism Outbreak in the Great Lakes
I don't think this is possible in Colorado and I don't know if their is a transmission pathway to people but I will have to look into it.
News Link
News Link
Ice Jam Causes Flooding on Clear Creek in Golden
Extreme cold can freeze water mains but flooding by ice jams is a rare event in Colorado.
News Link
News Link
Friday, December 6, 2013
Survivor of Chalk Creek Rockslide Shares How Dad Saved Her
News Link
Another hiker further up the trail describes the loud thunder clap type of noise that came when he saw "a big chunk of the mountain slide down".
Another hiker further up the trail describes the loud thunder clap type of noise that came when he saw "a big chunk of the mountain slide down".
Thursday, December 5, 2013
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