John McGinley, Peak to Peak. November 2019: After the cold and snow of October, November arrived with three weeks of mostly warm and dry weather. The final week finally saw some significant snow bringing the monthly total to 24 inches, seven inches above normal. With strong westerly flow aloft we had extremely windy conditions. Over half the days were over 40mph. For the month the temperatures were right near normal.

Precipitation: Total snow was 24 inches that melted out to 1.55 inches of liquid. We had two significant snow events, six inches on November 20 and 22; and 16 inches on November 25 and 26. Total for the month was 24.1 inches, above the normal of 17.7 inches.

Temperature: Despite the fact that the first part of the month was warm, there was enough cold air late to bring the average near normal. The average high was 41.5F with a low of 24.2F. The highest high was 55F on November 9; the lowest high was 17F on November 26. Coldest day was -3F on the 27th. The month was about one degree above normal overall. 

Winds: A very windy month with 18 days at 40+mph, with four days over 60mph. Peak wind at my house was 77mph on November 30, but several reports around Nederland had reports of 90 -100mph. Many trees were blown down. Eldora Ski Area suffered some damage to electrical equipment.

Other Features: The first half of the month had strong westerly flow with rapidly moving systems and downslope winds. A pattern change late in the month saw large deep storms forming over the west coast and moving in to Colorado. Suddenly we were cold and wet.

Outlook for December: Welcome to real winter with average high temperatures near 35F with lows at 15F. A typical December has 17 inches of snow. Windy days total about 14 with four days over 60mph.  Look for warm and dry conditions for the first week with a chance of a storm on December 9 turning much cooler. This will be followed by a warm and dry period through mid month.  The remainder of the month is likely to be about normal for temperature but slightly wetter than normal. 

(Originally published in the December 5, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)