We had a great crowd come out to see us at the library to talk about winter weather! (Click on title of post to see image)
Saturday – 2 November 2024 – 6:30pm
Included in this newsletter: Big Thank You Waves to Individual Donors & Our Sponsors; Doppler Radar Update, Community Outreach News; Calendar of events, CoCoRaHS and Contest Updates…
Personal Donations
Huge waves of thanks to folks who made donations in October! Special waves of thanks to: Barbara Brattin, Robert O Endres, Evan Westerfield, Marianne & Ty Carroll, and Sandra & Darin Dillon.
What your generous donation goes towards…
Your donations help us take care of our website manager, Fluid Elements, the Pagosa Weather website, commercial 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!
To make a donation, click on this link: How to Donate. You can donate by PayPal, Visa or MasterCard through Square, or send a Check to: Pagosa Weather, 135-F Country Center Dr. #142, Pagosa Springs CO 81147. Thank you so much for your generosity!
Shawn and I have been truly touched by the support our followers have shown for us! THANK YOU!!!
Scroll past sponsor logos to to see NEWS on the RADAR, Community Outreach, Calendar of Events, CoCoRaHS and Contest Updates.
Sponsors
We LOVE our Sponsors! They just amaze us with their support!
Click on the sponsor’s logo to follow to their website.
Blizzard Level Sponsor
Snowman Level Sponsors
Snowball Level Sponsors
Storm Sponsor
Community Outreach
Durango Doppler Radar UPDATE
The Durango Doppler Radar at the LaPlata County Airport went online in August. LaPlata Public and Governmental Affairs Manager sent us the following statement in September, “Things are just taking much longer than we anticipated and there have been a few setbacks at the end of construction. We’re (still) close to having an app and web plugin but we don’t have a date as to when that will be. I’m sorry it’s taking so long and we don’t have a more accurate estimate, but it’s been a battle and continues to be so.”
The radar went live with data on October 18th, 2024. I posted this message to the LaPlata County Government Facebook page, “That is great to see! I see that the ground clutter has not been filtered out yet – HD mountains for example. This appears to only be the lowest reflectivity product. Can you confirm that? Is it possible to change it to another product such as composite reflectivity? I really hope efforts are still being made to load data to NWS MRMS app so all radar data to include Grand Junction, Alamosa, Albuquerque, and Flagstaff are integrated to give the best possible analysis.”
This was the reply from the LaPlata County Government, “Good to hear from you folks – we’re still doing some fine-tuning but wanted to get this exciting community resource out to the residents and visitors of La Plata County so everyone can get comfortable with the app as we continue to expand the system’s capabilities.”
Follow this link to their Radar page: LaPlata County Doppler Radar Page
They also have an app on the Apple store – just search “La Plata County Weather Radar” and download it to your mobile device. They’re working on an Android version.
As of the 2nd of November, the data is still not available through the NOAA radar page, MRMS.
As soon as the data is available through the MRMS system and the data is more than just a low level beam reflectivity product, the radar will be much more useful for us in Archuleta county. Till such time, it is not useful. I’ll do a separate post as soon as the data is available and of help in analyzing the current atmosphere.
The test Volume Coverage Pattern for the .5 degree radar beam. Green and blue are excellent coverage. Yellows are decent coverage. Reds are poor coverage. Pagosa Springs will be under decent coverage certainly better than what we have had. Wolf Creek will be under excellent coverage. Note: This is not what we are seeing yet.
“This Is Your Watershed: Upper San Juan River”
San Juan Water Conservancy District invites you to a Video Launch Party on Monday, November 18, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. The location is Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts, 2313 Eagle Drive. Two water videos, produced by Christi Bode of Moxiecran Media, will be shown and discussed. Various water-related organizations, including Pagosa Weather, will host information tables about their work in service to our community’s water supply. The event is free and all are welcome.
Your Pagosa Weather Team, Arleen and Shawn will be there and part of the panel of water experts that will answer audience questions.
Winter Weather Talk
We had a nice crowd show up for the Pagosa Weather winter weather talk as Part of the Lifelong Learning Program at the Ruby Sisson Library which was open to the public!
Arleen and Shawn talked about winter weather for the Pagosa area and the southern San Juan Mountains. Arleen did a quick review of last winter. It was a weird year. Then she explained exactly how snow happens in our area. Finally, she explained her forecast for this winter of more then average snow.
Shawn was there to answer a lot of the really good questions!
Huge thanks to Ruby Sisson Memorial Library for their assistance in making this possible.
If you missed the talk, you can read about the winter outlook at this link: Pagosa Weather’s Winter Outlook 2024/2025
Let it SNOW! Let it SNOW!
Pagosa Peaks Open School (PPOS) Kindergarten
Ms. Saunders at the PPOS will be one of those teachers that will be remembered by many of her students as their favorite teacher ever. The students study weather for a few months and even learn a weather song. This is our third year visiting these little scientists and we had looked forward to it.
We made a cloud in a bottle, learned how pressure changes based on temperature in a jar, learned about wind with bubbles, and lightning with balloons. We identified cumulus and cirrus clouds with cloud frames.
If any other teachers would like us to visit your class, send an email to Arleen at pagosaweather@gmail.com
Festival of Trees
Ross Aragon Community Center presents the “Festival of Trees” in which 20 nonprofit organizations decorate trees and compete for the most votes.
Public viewing and voting will be on Thursday, December 5th from noon-6pm at the Ross Aragon Community Center. The community can come and look at the 20 beautifully decorated Christmas trees. You can vote on your favorite tree for $1.00. This is a free event for anyone to enjoy Christmas music, hot cocoa, cookies, and coffee. Santa will also be making an appearance from 3pm-6pm for pictures.
The tree auction will be on Friday, December 6th, doors opening at 5:30pm.
The Pagosa Weather Team is seeking volunteers to help us decorate a tree for the Festival of Trees. We will decorate on Tuesday, December 3rd starting at 9am. The theme is snowmen and snow! Contact Arleen @ pagosaweather@gmail.com for more information.
Huge thanks to our sister nonprofit organization, The Humane Society for helping us find some tree ornaments at the thrift store.
If any teachers or organizations would like us to visit for a presentation, send an email to Arleen at pagosaweather@gmail.com.
Pagosa Weather Calendar
- November 6th; CoCoRaHS Training;
- November 8th-10th; Hot Springs Festival
- November 18th, Monday, San Juan Water Conservancy District Film Launch Party! Release of “This Is Your Watershed: Upper San Juan River”
- December 2nd-6th: Festival of Trees; Pagosa Weather will have a tree; see details above.
- December 13th, Friday, 7am: Wolf Creek Ski Patrol, Winter Brief
CoCoRaHS Newsletter Updates
Pagosa Weather is the Archuleta County “CoCoRaHS Coordinator” and “Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador”.
Weather Data Lovers, CoCoRaHS has released CoCoRaHS Data Explorer, or “DEx” for short. This tool provides countless new ways to visualize and analyze data. Note: it is highly recommended to use larger screens when viewing the DEx.
Click here to go to the DEx Station Search page for data access to any station in the database. (open to the public)
HELP! Do you or do you have a friend that lives in one of the four areas highlighted below?
Archuleta County is well represented but we still have BIG data gaps. We really need a volunteer in Arboles, Dulce, west on Highway 160, and Pagosa Junction. 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.
Perhaps, our November Newsletter will show fewer red circles!
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.
Pagosa Weather October SUMMARY & November Outlook
Shawn’s October, 2024 summary will be out on Monday with my November Outlook.
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
| 2 Feet of SNOW | Oct 15, 2024 | Alley House |
| ’24-’25 Wolf Creek Snow | Nov 21, 2024 | Ski &Bow Rack |
Past Contest – San Juan River Flow Contest Winner!
The winner of The Springs Resort Two passes for The Hot Springs Festival on November 8th-10th, 2024 was Musetta Wollenweber! Congratulations Musetta! Have a wonderful time at the Festival!
We had a quick contest on how much the The San Juan River would go up during the widespread rain we had starting October 18th. The eastern side of the county had almost 3″ of rain over five days.
The Springs Resort is Pagosa Weather’s Storm Sponsor and are there with us through blizzards and significant monsoon storms. We are deeply grateful for their support & for sponsoring this quick contest!
Active Contest – First Inch of Snow winter 2023/2024
The following list of folks forecasted when the first 1” inch of snow that falls and sticks to the ground. The person with the closest guess will win a $50 gift certificate to Terry’s Ace Hardware, one of our Snowman sponsors. Note: This contest is closed to any new guesses.
The Pagosa Weather Team will determine and verify the 1st inch of snow. The verification snowboard is 7 miles northwest of Pagosa. That might be this week!
Huge thanks to Grace and the rest of her team for their support and for sponsoring this contest.
Good Luck to everyone!
Patti Brady 11/3/2024 12:00am
Linsey Holt 11/3/2024 2:00am
Aimee Rogacki 11/3/2024 2:45am
Renee Demianew 11/3/2024 4:30am
Kristie Bixler 11/4/2024 7:30pm
Brenda Schneider 11/5/2024 2:00am
Pam Harms 11/5/2024 8:05am
Kim Bristow 11/5/2024 5:00am
Chellie Marie 11/5/2024 6:00am
Beth Wallis Terry 11/5/2024 9:00am
Kristi Nolan 11/5/2024 11:05am
Patti Spindler 11/5/2024 5:28pm
Jeanette Green 11/7/2024 1:00am
Susan Dussell 11/7/2024 7:00am
Charlotte Ballard 11/7/2024 4:15pm
Lexy Derr 11/7/2024 11:00pm
Musetta Wollenweber 11/8/2024 2:00am
Clayton J Rizzi 11/8/2024 7:00am
Nicky Schneider 11/8/2024 7:35pm
Terry Arrington 11/8/2024 9:00pm
Kitty Neal 11/10/2024 7:37am
Lesha Peper Zander 11/10/2024 7:00am
Julie August 11/10/2024 5:00am
Richard Hash 11/10/2024 3:28am
Jana Hoyer 11/11/2024 6:00am
Susan Niemiec McAdams 11/11/2024 11:00am
Allison Damm 11/11/2024 11:11am
Franklin C Snyder 11/12/2024 6:00am
Cori Finch 11/12/2024 5:00am
Maggie Barilla Saunders 11/12/2024 6:58am
Chellie Panzera 11/13/2024 7:00pm
Will Ellis 11/13/2024 5:00am
Cherese Bergman 11/13/2024 9:00am
Richard Beaudry 11/14/2024 10:00am
Nancy Green 11/14/2024 6:00am
Lisa Glazener Doerr 11/14/2024 10:00pm
Kathy Embry 11/14/2024 2:00pm
Ron Perkins-Bogs 11/14/2024 8:00am
Kenny Rogers 11/15/2024 1:00pm
Alice Orient Keil 11/15/2024 7:00am
Kay Reed 11/15/2024 4:30am
Kimberly Hicks Laverty 11/15/2024 3:30am
Suanne Freitag McLellan 11/16/2024 7:00am
Martha Vitale Ball 11/16/2024 7:08am
Amy Dutton 11/17/2024 5:30am
Mark Langford 11/18/2024 6:00am
Kathleen Wells Steventon 11/18/2024 7:00am
Deborah HAYWARD 11/20/2024 6:00pm
Sandra Dillon 11/21/2024 11:00am
Venita Durrer 11/21/2024 8:15am
Bob Ashmore 11/22/2024 5:30am
Carolyn Wilson 11/23/2024 5:00am
Neil Umali 11/27/2024 5:00am
Kilina Martinez Garcia 11/27/2024 6:00am
Laurie O’Neil 11/28/2024 4:00pm
Kim Anita Moore 11/30/2024 5:00pm
Ed. H 12/3/2024 4:56pm
Shelley Shrader 12/6/2024 2:00pm
Janet Pentis 12/10/2024 5:00pm
Falisha Cozette Plake 12/13/2024 5:00am
Kacey Lee 12/17/2024 9:00pm
Pat Colby 12/20/2024 3:00pm
Lori Spencer 12/22/2024 5:10am
Kimberly Jean White 12/24/2024 4:45am
Bonnie J. Newman-Schilf 1/5/2025 1:00am
Active Contest – First 24″ of Snow Winter 2023/2024
Forecast the date and time we measure 24” of snow depth on the ground. The person with the closest guess will get a $100 gift certificate to Alley House! Note: This contest is closed to any new guesses.
The Pagosa Weather Team will determine and verify the 24 inches of snow. The verification area is located about 7 miles north of Pagosa in O’Neal Park just off of North Piedra, past the two cattle guards at 8,030 feet elevation. Let’s have fun and support our local businesses!
Huge “Thanks” to Joni, Martin, Corey, Dana, Jim, and the entire team at Alley House for their support and sponsoring this contest!
Good Luck to everyone!
We’ll have the whole list of entries next month.
