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Randy Cassingham's BlogHistorical Details and Author's Notes from This is True®
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Spring Snow
It was a good day to stay inside today. Just because it's well into Spring doesn't mean it doesn't want to snow in Colorado! It came down all day today, sometimes in "whiteout" conditions, piling up about 18" (46 cm) at my house. It stopped about two hours before tonight's newsletter went out, so I just posted an amazing photo of what happens here when it snows:
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The photo shows what the snow does when it gets heavy and starts sliding off my metal roof. It slides v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-ly -- and thus hangs way, way over before it falls. In the photo, it's hanging down about 2 feet (or about 61 cm, for those of you who use a more rational measuring system). It's been like that for several hours. (Yeah: it's dirty! That's the dust that ended up on the roof from a windstorm -- red sand from the Utah deserts.)
You can see my weather station in the middle of the photo too. Even when I'm not home, I can pop to it on the web via my phone and see what the conditions are at home. Handy!
I put my desk in a corner where I can look out windows to the east and to the south, since there are spectacular mountain ranges to the east and south. Since I type well, I'll set there and type while looking out the windows, looking at the view. I'll be sitting here in my office when I'll suddenly see something big moving in the corner of my eye. It's one of those huge chunks of snow, which has finally gotten heavy enough that it can't hold on to the roof anymore. If a long enough piece goes, what seems like several seconds later (it's a two-storey house) there's a big whump as it hits the ground, sometimes shaking the house a bit.
Another shot I just took: it got clear enough for a few minutes that the tallest (the 14,150 ft -- 4,312 m -- Mt. Sneffels, named after a volcano in Iceland) mountain peak peeked through the clouds. I got a nice photo out the office window. On the page I've also included a shot of what it looks like when it's clear -- which it was three days ago.
Those are pinyon pines there, weighed down by the snow. We have about 3,000 of them on our property.
Panorama of the mountains to the south of me, three days ago. Click to enlarge.
Yeah, it sucks that I have working conditions like this, but someone has to suffer through it. Though it works out well for you: it's one of the reasons I don't mind my 50-60 hour work weeks, typically spending time in the office seven days a week.
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Posted by Cory, Topeka Kansas on April 29, 2009:
Gorgeous.
Posted by Les - just outside Yosemite on April 30, 2009:
Precisely OUR roof, too, Randy! Our house is a vintage cedar log home at the 4,000 foot elevation just outside Yosemite. My acreage is all massive climax-growth forest with JUST enough cleared for the house. When I bought the house in 2001, the first thing I did was to replace the original cedar shake roof with a metal one, and yup: with our heavy snows, we too experience the 2' pageboy overhang. What's REALLY interesting (or at least mildly so) is when the temps fall precipitously and the stuff toughens up but doesn't break: we've had a near complete curled curtain from the second floor eaves make it all the way down to the first floor roof.
Ah, life in the mountains...don't ya just love it?!
Posted by Gail, Philadelphia on May 11, 2009:
I like the photos. I didn't realize the black hat was a weather station. When i first looked i thought you had a big snowman hiding in the forest. What a spectacular view. You're in heaven all the time. Thanks for the view.