Over 250 people showed up for the launch of the SJWCD video launch! It was so good to chat with so many of you! More pics & details below. (Click on title of post to see image)
Monday – 2 December 2024 – 8:00am
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 November! The holidays are getting closer. I can tell by your generosity!!! Special waves of thanks to: Alison & Joseph Rumsey, Joan Rowher, Stephanie Wilson, Stephen Trammel, Sandi Lada, Angie & Rich McGuire, Beck & Bill Todd, and Brady Turner!
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
18th Annual Festival of Trees at Ross Aragon Community Center this week!
Ross Aragon Community Center presents the “Festival of Trees” in which 20 nonprofit organizations decorate trees and compete for the most votes. Join us this week to experience the magic of 19 beautifully decorated Christmas trees, each crafted by local non-profits to raise funds for their causes.
Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024, starting at 09:00am, Decorate Tree
Come out and help the Pagosa Weather team decorate our Christmas Tree. We are getting a live, about 9 foot, White Fir tree. We’ll adorn with snowmen, snowflakes, red ornaments, red and white lights, and top with a large, iridescent snowflake. Just send a message to Arleen at pagosaweather@gmail.com to let her know if you can come by and help for an hour or two.
Thursday, December 5th: FREE!!! Public viewing and voting will be from noon-6pm at the Ross Aragon Community Center. The community can come and look at the 19 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.
Friday, December 6th, 2024, 18th Annual Festival of Trees Auction! Doors open at 5:30pm and Live Tree Auction at 7:00pm. Ticket Information: Individual Tickets: $30.00. Table Reservations are also available for groups. Tickets are available for purchase at The Ross Aragon Community Center or online at https://secure.rec1.com/CO/pagosa-springs-co/catalog Under Special Events! Live music provided by Steve Blechschmidt. Dinner provided by Chef’s Custom Cuisine Credit and Cash Bar.
Huge thanks to our sister nonprofit organization, The Humane Society, for helping us find some tree ornaments at the thrift store.
“This Is Your Watershed: Upper San Juan River”
The San Juan Water Conservancy District (SJWCD) had an incredible turn out for their Video Launch Party on Monday, November 18th at the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts.
First, various water-related organizations, including Pagosa Weather, hosted information tables about their work in service to our community’s water supply. An estimated 250 engaged community members attended the event and we felt like most of them visited our table. We saw a lot of our followers but also met a lot of folks who were not familiar with our free service.
Two water videos, produced by Christi Bode of Moxiecran Media, were shown and discussed. A third film will be released in the spring of 2025. After watching the water videos, a panel of water professionals engaged the audience in discussion of the changing reality of the San Juan River. The panelists were filmmaker Christi Bode, Pagosa Weather’s Shawn and Arleen Prochazka, hydrology engineer Chris Pitcher, Pagosa Paddle’s Lindsey Kurt-Mason, and rancher Becky Guilliams.
The SJWCD’s uses accurate measurements and reliable scientific data to predict the future of water resources. The Colorado Water Plan guides responsible decision-making of SJWCD’s professional Board of Directors. Voices from community are of paramount importance to SJWCD’s future.
Five of the panelists were, left to right: filmmaker Christi Bode, meteorologists Shawn and Arleen
Prochazka, hydrologist Chris Pitcher, and rafting guide Lindsey Kurt-Mason. Photo. Credit: Chuck Reihm.
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 started sending live 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.
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.
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
- 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 January 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 November, 2024 summary will be out in the next few days with my December 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
| ’24-’25 Wolf Creek Snow | Next Few Days!!! | Ski &Bow Rack |
Past Contest – First Inch of Snow winter 2024/2025
We measured our first inch of snow November 3rd at exactly 5:00pm! The winner of the $50 Gift Certificate from Terry’s Ace Hardware gift certificate was Renee Demianew!
Huge thanks to Grace and rest of the Terry’s Ace Hardware for sponsoring this contest and their support.
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! Let it SNOW! Let it SNOW!
12/4/2024 5:30 Do Engelhardt
12/4/2024 15:00 Gary Doherty
12/7/2024 7:30 Shelley Shrader
12/10/2024 14:30 Ilene Gauger
12/12/2024 16:00 Gina Doherty
12/12/2024 0:00 Laura Jones
12/13/2024 7:00 Corrinne Johnson
12/13/2024 9:30 Lisa Gamber
12/13/2024 Joan Scott
12/13/2024 16:30 Jo Ann Senzig
12/15/2024 7:30 Carly Owen
12/15/2024 7:00 Kristin Duvall
12/15/2024 6:00 Jim Laffey
12/18/2024 20:00 Susan Zoerb
12/18/2024 8:00 Jan Powers
12/18/2024 8:00 Frank Blair
12/18/2024 6:00 Jeffery Bentley
12/20/2024 Chris Edwards
12/20/2024 8:00 Kristie Bixler
12/20/2024 17:00 Stephen Trammel
12/20/2024 3:30 Eileen Martin
12/22/2024 6:00 Taylor Lewis
12/24/2024 20:00 Jennifer Brown
12/25/2024 15:00 Vicky Heid
12/27/2024 3:00 Abey Nelson
12/27/2024 7:00 Luke Plumley
12/28/2024 7:00 Kris Bos
12/28/2024 12:00 John mclellan
12/30/2024 Peggy Andrews
12/31/2024 22:00 Cheryl Bowdridge
1/1/2025 Kitty Neal
1/2/2025 6:00 Steve Voorhis
1/2/2025 4:30 Michelle Juneau
1/2/2025 8:00 Lisa Vail
1/3/2025 6:30 Janice Davis
1/4/2025 3:00 Devin Edwards
1/4/2025 5:00 Mark Langford
1/4/2025 7:30 Bryan Weitzel
1/5/2025 7:30 Susan Dussell
1/6/2025 8:00 Sue Watson
1/6/2025 8:00 Brad Hall
1/7/2025 14:30 Debbie Moore
1/7/2025 7:30 John Mclellan
1/7/2025 7:30 Jeff Witten
1/7/2025 22:30 Nolan Stretton
1/7/2025 3:30 Teresa Turner
1/7/2025 5:30 Peggy pike
1/10/2025 20:00 Duwain Whitis
1/10/2025 16:30 Kathleen Porter
1/10/2025 9:30 Kenny Rogers
1/10/2025 8:00 Franklin Snyder
1/10/2025 Suzanne Coe
1/12/2025 8:30 Darrell Smith
1/13/2025 7:30 David Wolff
1/16/2025 5:00 Sheldon Burks
1/16/2025 Barbara Pugh
1/17/2025 7:00 Mike Offerman
1/17/2025 10:30 Kelly Prudhomme
1/18/2025 12:30 Corey Shult
1/20/2025 7:15 Val Valentine
1/21/2025 4:00 Michelle Tressler-Kolkau
1/22/2025 18:30 Wendy Burton
1/23/2025 15:30 Justin Lewis
1/27/2025 6:00 Musetta Wollenweber
1/27/2025 17:00 Maria Gallegos-Kelly
1/28/2025 2:00 Brenda Hash
1/30/2025 6:00 Jana Hoyer
1/31/2025 20:00 Patti Spindler
2/2/2025 14:00 Rick Holter
2/2/2025 9:30 John Farley
2/2/2025 16:30 Ed H
2/7/2025 6:00 Richard Hash
2/14/2025 10:00 Kayla Cornish
2/25/2025 16:00 Debra Wallen
3/10/2025 8:00 Christian Cornish
6/16/2025 6:30 Michael Bobbitt
12/22/2025 7:00 Gerry Whitlow
