Hello, Dave Fraser without the fancy intro for Weather Wednesday, because I forgot to tell Shannon anything before this segment.
What you don't have me on Steam Dollar.
I do, but I was talking.
I didn't.
A complete failure on my part, Dave. But you know why because the weather's beautiful today, little chili but gorgeous.
Yep. It's stake spring too exactly the last weekend.
So yeah, so yeah.
The snowstorm didn't wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, So that's good.
Yeah, so that you know, the the wind was the biggest component of that recent storm we had, and it was more about that than the snow.
You know, I tried to stress on air as much as.
I could that regardless of what kind of snow you got, that it would be blowing and drifting and cause visibility issues. Was certainly a challenge out on the eastern Chane. You know, Castle Rock areas south were included in that blizzard morning.
But at about three o'clock in the morning, actually.
Right before I was leaving at eleven o'clock at night, it was evident that the snow totals weren't going to get up to the three and four inches that we saw.
I only got about two.
Here, and so the National Weather Service downgrade at the blizzard warning at about three in the morning to a winter weather advisory.
I will tell you however, I.
Drove home that night and as you know, you've come up past RidgeGate and get up on the flattop there by Castle Pines Parking, and the wind in the snow was just so bad, and it was a heavy, wet snow that was sticky in to everything. Like my sensors on my car were screaming at me like, hey, radars blind, can't do drive?
Yeah, the steering.
Wheel because it was that kind of visibility and sticky snow, and that stuff's always a challenge.
So what's happening in the immediate future? How long do we get to get enjoy this? And then where are we going to bounce back up to the fifties or sixties? What are we looking at the next week?
Very very quickly, So we've got two little pieces of rain and snow.
To deal with the mountains.
We'll get back into snow later tonight, but very late tonight, and then a better chance on Thursday and Friday. There are already a winter storm watches up for the mountains. Anybody thinking about traveling and starting later tonight, but certainly Thursday to Friday.
Afternoon could be a challenge in the mountains for us.
Some of that moisture is going to spill off as a rain shower later on Thursday. That could mix with a little bit of snow late Thursday night.
And then there's some questions on whether.
Or not we have snow Friday morning or Friday afternoon. Some models want to keep the snow into Friday morning with less than an inch. Others want to dry it out and then bring it back in the afternoon. So I would expect snowshowers on Friday with probably less than an inch of accumulation. And again, this is another Pacific storm, so it won't be terribly cold. The forecast high on Friday Thursday, it's going to be like fifty five Friday, probably around thirty eight to forty degree.
Then here comes to good news.
We get back into the fifties on Saturday, fifties on Sunday, and seventies come Monday.
Wow, that'll be a nice change. Nice change. Hey, Dave, I have somebody on the text line that is super not happy with you because of the missed forecast. They said most of Eastern Plains schools canceled school yesday and when no snow came, parents and guardians were screaming bloody murder because they had to get daycare or other arrangements. There's been misses before, but this one was pretty major
and really impacted people's schedules negatively and unnecessarily. What happened with this particular storm that made it so hard to fortest.
So again this storm, the placement of the storm was literally right over the Ice seventy quarter, and sometimes that benefits heavier snow along the corridor.
The storm did move a little further south, so.
The snow line, the projected chance for accumulating snow dropped further south.
And so while the Eastern.
Plains and northeast Colorado, like the I seventy sixth quarter a good chunk of ice, the Ice seventy quarter didn't get the snow in.
Some of its stayed as rain.
And again that man goes to the fact that this was a Pacific storm.
It just didn't have a lot of cold air.
The wind component was definitely there. When was the challenge was smacking into the side of eighteen wheelers on I seventy.
The problem with the school closes. We do the storytime time again.
When the National Weather Service issues a blizzard warning and you're the administrator at a school on the Eastern Plains, places like Kiowa and Lineman in the bullseye for blizzard conditions, I mean, how do you not make that decision to school? And even though they didn't get the snow. Remember, the definition of a blizzard is not deep snow. The definition of a blizzard is strong wind combined with snow. No accumulation is a factor in there. It just has to
be snowing. The combination of the wind of the snow reduces visibility for a quarter of a mile for a consistent three hours or longer. So those are the ingredients that the National Weather Service was looking at. They had the components to give you that reduced visibility and the blowing and the drifting and being able to keep the roads open. The snow never equated, and so you ended up with a wind event a lot of places more so than the snow and a blizzard event.
I mean, but obviously, Dave, you and your colleagues did that on purpose, just to screw people over.
Yes, of good.
I mean, I know you guys, you all have a streak of evil in you, and that's why you do the job you do.
That's what it's all. I just got a question.
Oh go ahead.
Yeah, I was gonna say, if it was that easy, if businesses would close because of those reasons, I'd be throwing blizzard warnings at the map every day.
Yeah, exactly, we don't get to stay home. Let me ask you, and you this this text actually said, this may be an inappropriate question, but can you ask Dave generally how much a meteorologist makes per year? And this is a lot of time people, because people ask me and I always say, and this is not me hedging.
It depends on the market you're in, It depends on the day part you're in, It depends on you know, so many different factors go into what people make in our industry that you can't give a blanket statement.
Yeah, I would agree with you on that. You know, what's changed in recent years is.
The Colorado law about disclosures of seth oh. Yeah, so that has really opened up, you know, kind of a portal for people to see. So your description is correct. I go to schools and talk to kids, and always you get those questions and I say the same thing always act yeah they do, and why shouldn't they Right, they're thinking about this as a career and they find out it doesn't pay as much as they thought it did, maybe they rethink what they want to do in life.
I will say it's exactly the same it is.
It's about the size of the city. Ran you know, what's your destination. Do you want to work in Denver or is hometown? You know, somewhere in a small market in Kansas and you're comfortable making money.
I've worked with.
Guys and known guys in the business for years that worked in smaller cities, lessons who didn't make as much as maybe somebody in a New York city, but they made enough money that they had a comfortable, great life as a career.
And it goes through experience. It goes to the position.
Some you know, a weekend position might not be paid as much as a Monday through Friday position morning versus nights, all of those things. But in Colorado now, if you're curious about any job because of that change law two years ago, all you've got to do is go out and Google jobs, and the salaries are right there in plain view.
Oh nice, I'm googling to see if mine's on here that I have no idea, I'll let you know, but it is true.
It will be when you leave. I can tell you that there you go, You're going to see what they're gonna pay the next person.
Yeah, exactly, exactly, I mean, but really, am I replaceable? Dave Frasier? The answer is of a sounding. Now, all right, Dave, we'll talk to you next week, my friend, and just let's enjoy this next week of gorgeous weather. I can't wait.
Yeah again, March is Denver snowy this month, But I want to stress that doesn't mean it snows all month.
All it needs is we have a chance to.
Get decent storms at times. But you're also going to get to enjoy a third and a fourth stake spring, and that comes this weekend and certainly on Monday.
Golout to stretch your lighty seventy degrees.
All right, fantastic, Thanks Dave Fraser. We'll talk to you next week, all right, But I