Category Archives: Weather, Climate and Science

This is a picture I took about two weeks ago, during the really cold days after the snow storm. It’s my job to walk Liv in the mornings, almost always right after waking up. So, this shot was taken before 7am, during the coldest part of the morning. I had just walked Liv around the block, and I looked down and saw that frost had formed on the edges of her fluff and wiskers. I thought to myself “It must be really cold.” Got inside, checked the temperature, and sure enough, it was -21.6C (-7F) out there.

It’s been warmer since, thank goodness.

This is a shot I took in the middle of the snow storm that hit last week. It snowed for about 24 hours and when it was over, we had about 8 inches on the ground. It was a pretty snow, and a fun day to run around in it.

Yey! The new battery and charger arrived last night! I was finally able to free the hundred-or-so pictures that had been trapped on the camera. Thinking back on it now, I probably could have just found myself an SD card reader and pulled them off that way, but I didn’t think of that until it was too late.

So, this picture has a pretty fun story associated with it. Last week, on the day after the big snow, I took a late lunch break and drove up to Rotary Park near Horsetooth Reservoir to try to get some good pictures of the new snow. As I drove down the road over the dams, I could see this beautiful fog being blown around on top of the water, it was an incredible sight.

When I got up to Rotary, there was one other person there. Another guy, bundled up against the cold, with his tripod and very nice camera out, trying to take the same pictures I wanted! So, of course, I took a couple pictures of him taking pictures.

When I got close enough he stood up and smiled at me, and I said (rather lamely) “Um, hi. Do you Flickr?” What kind of question is that? It doesn’t even make sense. If he didn’t know what I was talking about, he would probably classify me as mentally challenged. But he just laughed and said “I was just about to ask you that!”

So, here I have met another Flickrite. His name is AJ, and I had actually commented on a couple of his photos just the day before. Now I’ve met another cool local photographer via the internet. He invited me to future Ft. Collins Flickr gatherings, and I think I’ll probably go.

This is the picture I took of AJ. It is a bit of an experiment, and I’m still kind of futzing with it. Constructive criticism is very welcome.

The snow storm has hit! We got about 8 inches at our house last night and this morning. It was a nice, thick flaked, windy, blizzard for a few hours, and made driving from and back to school really interesting. Mark says the Passat may be ready for new tires, but the Escape is doing great.

Our Christmas adventures have begun!

Today is the beginning of a travel day. Turkey Day is almost upon us! This picture is my take on the fantastic sky last night. Waves upon waves upon waves.

Just wandering around this evening trying to take a few pictures. I lost my light pretty quickly, and so started playing with the flash. We had a great down-slope wind this evening. I say “great” because my ride home from work is west to east, and so this was a fantastic tail-wind. I lost my bike computer last summer, so I don’t know how fast I was going, but it felt great!

In this picture, the wind was blowing these tall stalks of grass all around. I was swaying back and forth trying to catch them with the camera. :)

I voted today! We have an early voting option here in Ft. Collins, and three locations staffed in town at which we can vote. I got to use one of the Dibold electronic voting machines, which I got a kick out of. I know there’s been a lot of worry about these machines, but I found it very easy to use, and I saw the paper trail go by with the correct votes, so I feel confidant in the machine.

Another picture today from another sunset. I love the sky out here.

More Lenticulars at sunset from last weekend. As the storm track moves south out of Canada in the fall, we start to see more strong upper level winds out of the west. As they travel over our mountains, waves appear in the stream. Just like water flowing over a rock produces a wave. The result is these beautiful lenticular clouds. I just love looking at them. I think they’re incredible. And they are so special. You have to have good topography and good conditions to make these.