Storm Heads Toward Denver

View of the State Capital in Denver this morning (October 28, 2009) as the snow storm begins to ramp up in Colorado.

Here in southeast Arizona we had mostly dust and wind yesterday afternoon and during the night. Temperatures have been falling since around midnight. Very little precipitation except at higher elevations. The Pima County ALERT network data show that 8 of the mountain sites reported measurable rainfall. Amounts were light except at Davidson Canyon which reported 0.24" - the Carr RAWS station reported 0.21". So this event, which materialized much more quickly than the long range models had been forecasting 5 or so days ago, brings us wind and winter-like temperatures. Winds were mostly in the 30 to 45 mph range as the cold front swept through, but there were some reports of higher maximum gusts at the RAWS stations in southeast Arizona: Mt. Hopkins 50 mph, Horse Camp 53 mph, Chiricahua NM Headquarters 55 mph, and the highest I found this morning - Gutherie 60 mph. So, words for the day are "bundle up and keep warm."