Sean Gillies (Posts about weather)

Cameron Peak Fire at two months

Sean Gillies — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 17:17:10 GMT

The Cameron Peak Fire began two months ago and is the largest fire recorded in Colorado. It has burned over 167,000 acres (67,000 hectares). 30,000 acres burned on Wednesday in a 15-mile run that appears as an uncontained eastward-stretching red lobe in the map below.

Fire map for morning of 2020-10-16

The limber pine groves around Signal Mountain and Donner Pass that I ran through on June 7 burned on Wednesday. I know people who are getting evacuated near this new run. Horsetooth Open Space and Lory State Park are closed. High winds are expected again today and according to the incident commander more crown fire runs may be possible. It's a bad situation.

Summer snow

Sean Gillies — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 15:30:43 GMT

Fall is still 12 days away, but it has begun snowing in Fort Collins.

Air quality is excellent this morning. Of course I went running.

Too smoky to run

Sean Gillies — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 18:01:37 GMT

I haven't run since the 19th of August because the quality of our air has been so poor. Like much of the Mountain West, we're under a plume of smoke from California fires. The Cameron Peak Fire, 50 miles upstream, continues to grow. And on the 21st a new fire started about 5 miles from my house and has grown to 165 acres. Yesterday afternoon the CSU air quality station measured a maximum air quality index (AQI) for fine particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) of 199. That's bad. Three hours outside installing a new chicken coop yesterday has given me itchy eyes, stuffiness, and a cough. I wore a mask, but still inhaled too many particles.

Trail Runner has an article that looks at issue around running and PM2.5 exposure. It has me thinking that I should stay in today even though the PM2.5 AQI is 72, only moderately bad. But this may be the best we get for a few days; I see forecasts of PM2.5 AQI 140 for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Spring weather

Sean Gillies — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 23:40:35 GMT

I'm sitting in my kitchen typing at my computer and watching the rain and just heard thunder outside for the first time this year. This is good! I've been training in the dark and cold of Winter for 4 months and am ready for it to move on.

Winter is Coming

Sean Gillies — Sun, 14 Oct 2018 00:03:19 GMT

One of the neat weather features on the Front Range of Colorado is the dramatic warm up before a winter storm. A strong trough or closed low (like a hurricane) imports warm air from the south before the system hits. We experienced this today. The weather for Arabelle's 10:30 a.m. soccer game was beautiful: calm, sunny, 15°C.

Soccer in the foreground, snowy peaks in the background: Longs Peak (left) and Mummy Range (right).

Arabelle is playing 11 on 11 U14 soccer this fall and plays the holding midfielder role for her team. I and the other parents watched her team win 3-1 under blue skies, knowing that it's going to be much different tonight. We got a little snow Wednesday, but this weekend's storm is more serious.

First snow on Wednesday.

After the game, I ran one of my favorite foothill trail loops and then came back and got the garden ready for winter. I picked herbs and green tomatos, cut down plants that aren't going to survive a freeze, and tossed them in the compost. I brought our rosemary bush inside, put away our rain barrel, disconnected all the hoses, and folded up and stashed the patio furniture.

All the tomatos are countertop tomatos now.

Bring it, Winter!