News Detail
Mike Nelson's Weather Book
July 30, 2009 12:48
Chief Meteorologist for Channel 7 News/KMGH-TV, Mike Nelson, has a new weather book for Colorado.
Click here to take a trip inside the book:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/slideshow/weather/14526700/detail.html
This is an excerpt from the Holiday Storms chapter:
"Drifts as high as the rooftops blanketed homes and farm buildings; 12 to 36 inches of snow had fallen during the storm, heaviest across the southeast counties. Drifts were measured at 10to 15 feet deep, and up to 18 feet deep east of Sheridan Lake in Kiowa County. Thousands of head of cattle were stranded in the deep snow, and ranchers lost many of their herds, right in the midst of calving season. Despite valiant efforts by ranchers and the Colorado National Guard, hay dropping from military helicopters was not sufficient to save many of the lost cattle. Many longtime ranchers and farmers said that the late December storms of 2006 were worse than the October 1997 blizzard and as bad as any storm in memory.
In the mountains and foothills of southern Colorado, 30 to 48 inches of snow were measured from the storm. The storm closed all major roads for days, and smaller secondary roads for weeks. Food supplies ran low at stores once citizens could get out of their homes, and merchants were quite distressed at the timing of the storms, right in the heart of the big retail season.
The twin blizzards of 2006 did bring good news to the water supply, though. Before the storms, Denver was on track to tie the driest year ever recorded, 7.48 inches in 2002. Though 2006 stayed still in the top 10 driest, ranking seventh, the storm brought a widespread 1 to 4 inches of liquid-equivalent moisture to the foothills and eastern plains. It also made for one of the snowiest Decembers on record, ranking just behind 1913 and 1973."