Pagosa Weather February ’23 Newsletter

Dog sitting in snow

Feet of snow in the high country has made for great snowshoeing adventures! – Pic taken 1/22/2023

Big Thank You Waves to Individual Donors & Sponsors; Plus Meet the 2023 Pagosa Weather Board of Directors; News on Community Outreach; Contest Updates

Personal Donations

Special waves of thanks to our New Years Eve donors: Frank Snyder, Alice Keil, Marshall Clayshulte, Mary Ann Durham, Robert Barlow, Stephanie Wilson, and The Rowdy Girl.

And special waves of thanks to the folks who made donations in January: Bobby Phillips, Sue Fischer, Patricia Latham, Marshall Clayshulte, Kristi & Ed Hensle, Susan & Dean Dussell, Steve Sherr, and Carol Bowden.

What your generous donation goes towards

Your donations help us take care of the costs of the website manager, the website, weather subscriptions, and other business expenses.  Most importantly your donations ensure that we will be able to provide this free service for everyone for years to come.  Remember, each donor will receive a Pagosa Weather Snow Depth Measurer (yardstick). 

How to Donate: You can donate by PayPal, Square, or by check. Thank you for our generosity!

You can pick up your Pagosa Weather Snow Depth Measurer (yardstick) at San Juan Mercantile.  

San Juan Mercantile is a fun store with a wide variety of items. Antiques and Collectibles, tons of Jewelry, Gifts, Handmade Treasures, Knives, Candles, Housewares, Fine Linens, Local Honey, Souvenirs, and Locally made items.  It is at 524 San Juan Street, next to the Barber Shop, across the street from Plaza Liquor.  Thank you, Cindy and her team for being our store front!

Mark, Shawn and I have been truly touched by the support our followers have shown for us!


Sponsors

We LOVE our Sponsors!  They just amaze us with their support!

We welcomed The Buck Stops Here as a new sponsor this month.

Click on the sponsor’s logo to follow to their website.

Blizzard Level Sponsor

Ski & bow rack logo with an archer

Snowman Level Sponsors

Alley House Logo
Ace Logo
Pagosa Medical Center

Snowball Level Sponsors

Dr M Logo
The Buck Stops Here logo
Pagoa Mountain Sports Logo SQ
San Juan Sled Dogs logo
Peggy Andrews Logo

Our Storm Sponsor

The Springs Logo

2023 Pagosa Weather Board of Directors

The board met in January and elected new officers that we’re very excited about. Our new officers bring a lot of energy and ideas from a very wide range of careers and experiences. Debbie and Udgar have been Pagosa Weather followers since the Todd Cook days. Deborah is new to the area but is a amateur meteorologist. We met Sharon during one of our school visits and she immediately offered to help in some way. We’re happy that Connie Hays, who was our first board member will be on the board for a few more years as our financial advisor.

Our board members have already been busy making plans for 2023. Pagosa Weather will be in the 4th of July parade again. We hope to make appearances at other Pagosa events such as the Chili Cha Cha or Colorfest and the Farmer’s Market. We’ll submit an application to partake in the 19th Hole Concert Series. And expect to see a Pagosa Weather Christmas tree decorated with snowflakes during the Festival of Trees.

When you see these fine folks around town, be sure to thank them for dedicating their time and expertise to Pagosa Weather. Mark, Shawn, and I are very thankful!

2023 Board Members
Left to right, Sharon Roman (Secretary), Connie Hayes (Treasurer), Deborah McLain (Member at Large), Debbie McCallister (Member at Large), Udgar Parsons (Vice President), Arleen Prochazka (President), Shawn Prochazka (Forecaster), Mark Langford (Forecaster)

Pagosa Weather Meet & Greet: February 11th at San Juan Mercantile!

You are invited to come out and meet Mark, Shawn and I on Saturday, February 11th from 11am to 3pm at San Juan Mercantile at 524 San Juan Street.

We will have Pagosa Weather yardsticks available for a $10 donation, free stickers, and magnets. If you haven’t picked up your ruler or yardstick yet, it will be a great time to stop by and get it. If you have wondered about the CoCoRaHS program, we will be able to talk to you about it in person.

Huge thanks to Cindy, Tom and the rest of the team at San Juan Mercantile for hosting our meet and greet and for being our store front!

San Juan Merc

Presentations

Pagosa Peak Open School

We visited little scientists at Pagosa Peak Open School. These kindergarten students already understand the four main elements of weather! They even sang us a song about it!

PPOS K
These goofy little scientists know how to make science fun!


Valor Academy

We visited the Kindergarten, 1st Grade, and 2nd Grade at the Valor Academy! They had such fun learning about pressure, temperature differences, clouds, winds, and static electricity. Making a cloud in a bottle was their favorite science experiment!

Valor
The future scientists at Pagosa Valor Academy didn’t care it was cold outside!

Future Presentations

Valor Academy 3rd – 4th grade in February. More little scientists!

Middle School, 8th grade February. The older scientists!

Outdoor Club Meeting, Thursday May 4th, 6:45-8pm, Monsoon Outlook – Open to Public

Ruby Sisson Library, TBA, 6-7pm, Monsoon Outlook – Open to Public

Send email to pagosaweather.org if your organization would like to hear a weather presentation.


CoCoRaHS

Pagosa Weather is the Archuleta County “CoCoRaHS Coordinator” and “Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador”.

According to Nolan Doesken, “When the snow gets deep, which is finally happening in some areas, the Snow Water Equivalent of the snowpack becomes valuable, but a bit arduous – or at least time consuming.  Therefore, at the suggestion of one of our big data users, the National Weather Service’s National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center, we began to recommend a once-a-week measurement of the Snow Water Equivalent (SWE).  Their preference, to best support their operational tasks, is reporting SWE each Monday morning until the snow has melted this spring.  What may work well, assuming it’s not raining or snowing, is to go out Sunday afternoon or evening and gathering your core sample. Then it will have all night to melt and be ready to quickly measure Monday AM.  Our data feed into a number of snowpack monitoring products which, in turn, provide important inputs to snowpack and runoff models and forecasts.”

328159127 857921225488900 2571720988620636997 n
Arleen getting her core sample in O’Neal Park.

Archuleta County is well represented but we still have big data gaps. We really need a volunteer in Arboles, Dulce, west on Highway 160, Pagosa Junction, and the upper Blanco. Sign up by filling out this web page: https://www.cocorahs.org/application.aspx. Or send us a note and we can send you more detailed information.

CoCoRaHS Map

The red circles are areas we could use a CoCoRaHS observer. Let us know if you can give us 5 to 10 minutes every morning to measure precip and snow. CoCoRaHS provides all the training you need.


Contest Updates

Special Thanks to our sponsor businesses that have stepped forward to sponsor our weather contests. They are a lot of fun!

Upcoming Contests

First ThunderstormFeb 15, 2023TBA
1st 75 degrees of 2023Mar 1, 2023Pagosa Mountain Sports
2023 Monsoon RainfallMay 15, 2023The Springs Resort

Past Contest – TWO feet of SNOW!

We measured two FEET in O’Neal Park on January 15th, at 9am. Lisa Doerr was the winner of a $50 Gift Certificate to Terry’s Colorado Home Supply & Ace Hardware. Huge thanks to Grace and her team at Terry’s Colorado Home Supply & Ace Hardware for the support of our weather contests and for being our Snowman level sponsor!

image


Active Contest – Wolf Creek Total Seasonal Snowfall Contest!

Forecast the Total Seasonal Snowfall for Wolf Creek Ski Area on their final day of operation.  The person with the closest guess will win a $50 gift certificate for SKI & BOW RACK!!! In addition, Ski & Bow Rack has offered HATS for the next closest guesses!

Huge thanks to Brittany & Robert and the rest of the team at Ski & Bow Rack for the support of our weather contests and for being our Blizzard level sponsor!

Ski & bow rack logo with an archer

Wolf Creek currently has received 249″ of snow!

Ed says:                       272″

Irene Hamburg Mueller: 308

Keith Hopkins Jones: 321”

Amanda Griego:          330

Stacey says:                338″

Val Valentine says:     357”

Jeff Witten says:         362”

Brian G Akins:            377 inches

Starla Pribble:              382 inches

Kirsten Derr says:       382

Martha Vitale Ball:     386

Gina Boaz:                  387”

David Hansen:            388″

Kirk Bliss:                   388″

Amy Shepherd:           391″

Pat Melinis Colby:      393″

Dena Laterza:              395″

Jan Powers:                 397 “

Michelle Tressler Kolkau: 398″

Venita Durrer:             399”

Renee Demianew:       402″

Musetta Wollenweber:403″

Al Pfister says:            403″

Sandra Meyn Thoma:  404”

Lauren Hawksworth:  406″

Kenny Rogers says:    407″

Laura Lunsford says:  409

Rose G Shehan says:   410″

Michelle Juneau says: 410 inches

Dennis Jeffrey:            411”

Carol Ann Peterson:    411″

Jeff Bentley:               412 inches

Falisha Cozette Plake: 413”

Nathanael Ward:         414

Mike Cianciolo says:  419″

Tonya Jayne:               420″

Rob Barlow says:        420″

Terri Theisen:              420”

Luke/Katrina Brinton: 421”

John Curran:               421”

Kristie/Kirk Bixler:     423”

Kay Reed:                   425”

Gregory Peck:             426”

Bill Milner:                  427 inches

Barbara Clabaugh Pugh: 429”

Edie Brogan:               429”

Phil Slusher says:        429 inches

Hannah Hemenger:     432”

Amanda Martinez:      433”

Dee Halley:                 435”

Gina Leach:                 435”

Audrey Bliss:              438″

Chris Edwards:           444”

Kelly Tony Norwood-Gray: 449”

Hillary Fredrickson:    450”

Dave Stimpson:           454″

Haley Richard:            455″

Rick Holter says:        457″

Joni Watkins:              460”

Cheryl Ward-Bowdridge: 462″

Simmie E. Rose:         472″

Casey Fisher:               475″

Janice Roedel says:     480 inches of snow.

Randy Hays:               485″

Steve Voorhis says:    485 inches

Andrew Woods:          488″

Kathy Moore:              512

Kim Bristow says:      512 inches

Michael Iske:              602

Chelsea Casaceli:        877

Pagosa Weather Blizzard Level Sponsor

Pagosa Weather Storm Sponsor

Arleen Pro

Arleen Pro

I grew up in Montana where my love of mountains is rooted. I was in the Air Force for 24 years; Weather Observer to Weather Forecaster to Staff Weather Officer all to ensure flight safety. Mission was to brief aircrews on clouds, winds, turbulence, icing, thunderstorms. I served a total of 8 assignments and 4 deployments around the world. After RV traveling full time for 9 years, we found paradise in Pagosa. Here we enjoy hiking, mountain biking, fishing, kayaking, snowshoeing, skiing in spectacular mountains! Plus, we're trying to solve the San Juan weather puzzle! I am an AMS member.
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4 Responses

    1. Yes, Pagosa Peak! Oh dear. I’m fairly tired today. Thank you for catching that! I have a habit of doing that. I was stationed at Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs before… Making a correction now.

    1. Sylvia, I’m sorry this contest closed for guesses on November 28th, 2022. We’ll be announcing a new contest soon.

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