Hellbent Posted May 22, 2011 Rain not needed for severe flood threat in western states STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — For all the attention on epic flooding in the Mississippi Valley, a quiet threat has been growing here in the West where winter snows have piled up on mountain ranges throughout the region. Thanks to a blizzard-filled winter and an unusually cold and wet spring, more than 90 measuring sites from Montana to New Mexico and California to Colorado have record snowpack totals on the ground for late May, according to a federal report released last week. Those giant and spectacularly beautiful snowpacks will now melt under the hotter, sunnier skies of June — mildly if weather conditions are just right, wildly and perhaps catastrophically if they are not. Fear of a sudden thaw, releasing millions of gallons of water through river channels and narrow canyons, has disaster experts on edge. Get the whole New York Times story here. The weather channel's coverage of this story: The image below indicates the water content in the snowpack as a percent of average for this time of year. The dark purple squares indicate at least twice the average snowpack is in place over the Wasatch, northern Colorado mountains, Sierra, and parts of the Cascades. Incredibly, there is 4 times the average snowpack in parts of the Wasatch mountains right now! Click the image to go the article. It's a little more interesting than the NYT's one. 0 Share this post Link to post
Maes Posted May 22, 2011 The conditions are always right for yet another Hellbent introspective, attention-seeking or homework-solving thread. 0 Share this post Link to post
Triple_sSs Posted May 22, 2011 Well, crap. I'm living in Utah around the Wasatch mountains right now, and it says the showpack there is 4 times more than normal. I hope I don't get any major flooding here, although I've actually got a big pond right in my backyard and that could just make things worse. 0 Share this post Link to post
Nomad Posted May 22, 2011 Where at in Utah are you? I used to live in Syracuse then moved to Clinton, though I'm in California now. Mike_Renier lives in Clinton right now! 0 Share this post Link to post
Hellbent Posted May 22, 2011 Maes said:The conditions are always right for yet another Hellbent introspective, attention-seeking or homework-solving thread. Just trying to keep DWers safe Maes. 0 Share this post Link to post
Triple_sSs Posted May 22, 2011 Nomad said:Where at in Utah are you? I used to live in Syracuse then moved to Clinton, though I'm in California now. Mike_Renier lives in Clinton right now! Well how about that, I actually do live in Syracuse! So should I be worried for where I'm at? 0 Share this post Link to post
Hellbent Posted May 22, 2011 Triple_sSs said:Well how about that, I actually do live in Syracuse! So should I be worried for where I'm at? The snowmelt should not reach that far east. 0 Share this post Link to post
Triple_sSs Posted May 22, 2011 Well that's a relief. Though I think I'll still keep an eye out in the coming months. 0 Share this post Link to post
Fulgrim Posted May 22, 2011 Yep, the west has pretty much been hammered by snow all winter. My mother said there is at least 8 feet in the Aspen/Snowmass area. Needless to say I'm hoping for a mild summer. Last time CO got this much snow the summer was pretty bad when it came to bears and pumas coming down into the Aspen/Snowmass area. I came within spitting distance of two brown bears in 06. One of them I could have reached out and rubbed its nose. Great way to start a morning. lol 0 Share this post Link to post
Hellbent Posted May 30, 2011 Damn, still dumping snow Late winter storms are packing a punch to the Rockies, piling snowpack on top of already record levels across the West where officials are concerned about historic flooding, avalanches and mudslides. "At this point, everybody is just sitting back chewing fingernails and waiting because the longer it stays cold and wet, the worse it's going to get," said Randy Julander, a supervisor with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service. Julander said in a typical year the weather warms gradually, allowing snow in the mountains to melt slowly and ease into rivers and streams over time. That's not the case this year. "June is right around the corner and sooner or later, it's going to warm up," he said, noting that instead of gradually warming over eight to ten weeks, the West will likely see a rapid rise in temperatures heading into summer, a worst case scenario. "And it's not just Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. It's basically all of the western states except Arizona and New Mexico," Julander said. "We're waiting for the chute to open and the bull to come out bucking, but he ain't moving, yet." 0 Share this post Link to post
Csonicgo Posted May 31, 2011 Wants you to suck it up. It's not global warming. 0 Share this post Link to post
Xaser Posted May 31, 2011 Hmm, is it a good or bad sign that I have no idea who the man in the picture is? Politics? Isn't that what old people do for fun? 0 Share this post Link to post
Marnetmar Posted May 31, 2011 I live in central Utah (No, I'm not Mormon) and while I haven't been experiencing any floods, it's been raining like fuck. It's like God was testing how long he could hold his piss in before he decided to let 'er rip. 0 Share this post Link to post
Csonicgo Posted May 31, 2011 Xaser said:Hmm, is it a good or bad sign that I have no idea who the man in the picture is? Politics? Isn't that what old people do for fun? It's Sean Hannity, the same moron that said climate change was bunk because "It's snowing in dallas" or some stupid bullshit. 0 Share this post Link to post
Bloodshedder Posted May 31, 2011 Csonicgo said:It's Sean Hannity, the same moron that said climate change was bunk because "It's snowing in dallas" or some stupid bullshit. Must you drag political nonsense into this? 0 Share this post Link to post
Marnetmar Posted May 31, 2011 Bloodshedder said:Must you drag political nonsense into this? Should've read his title. 0 Share this post Link to post
kristus Posted May 31, 2011 Csonicgo said:Wants you to suck it up. It's not global warming. He's technically right. It's not global warming. It's global climate change. 0 Share this post Link to post
Craigs Posted May 31, 2011 http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/05/22/us/22snow-span/22snow-span-articleLarge.jpg where the hell is Huy? I'm pretty sure he'd like to see if he could jump that 0 Share this post Link to post
Sharessa Posted May 31, 2011 kristus said:He's technically right. It's not global warming. It's global climate change. Actually, it's global warming. That's the end result, anyway. We're just experiencing the cold & wet dip before it it goes crazy. Right now the extra sunlight is melting the ice caps and sending huge currents full of arctic ice water into the temperate zone, forming colder and wetter fronts resulting in the cold, snowy winters and flooding we've been experiencing these past few years. After the ice caps are gone, then the global warming starts for real. :| 0 Share this post Link to post
DoOmEr4LiFe Posted June 3, 2011 I just got back from Bismarck, and looks like the makers of the map forgot to add North Dakota, where I spent my vacation sandbagging. 0 Share this post Link to post
DuckReconMajor Posted June 3, 2011 Hellbent said:http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/05/22/us/22snow-span/22snow-span-articleLarge.jpgI'd be more scared to break down and not have a shoulder to pull off on than of any melting snow. And yeah, it's going to get colder in places before we eventually turn Earth into Venus. 0 Share this post Link to post