{"id":2325,"date":"2013-03-25T14:00:12","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T20:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hikeandlearn.org\/?p=2325"},"modified":"2013-03-25T21:20:35","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T03:20:35","slug":"a-bit-of-pueblo-mountain-parks-snowfall-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hikeandlearn.secure.retreat.guru\/a-bit-of-pueblo-mountain-parks-snowfall-history\/","title":{"rendered":"A bit of Pueblo Mountain Park’s snowfall history!"},"content":{"rendered":"

With this winter’s snowfall now up to 88″, I decided to take a look at the park’s recent winter totals to see just how dry, or unusual, this one is. Since 1990, we’ve had five winters with less than 90″ of snow: 2001\/2002 with 48″; 2010\/2011 74.3″; 2005\/2006 74.5″; 2000\/2001 75″; and 2008\/2009 83.5″. If we don’t get any more snow (which is unlikely), then 2012\/2103 will be added to this list. The snowiest was 1997\/1998, when 209.5″ of glorious snow blanketed the park. The average of the last 23 winters is 117.18″.<\/p>\n

One thing that I notice from these numbers is that few winters bring what is often referred to as “normal” snowfall. When the news weather person says that we are above or below “normal,” what is really being said is that we are above or below “average.” And an average is just that – add up all the numbers, divide by the quantity of entries, and there’s the average – for the park, 117.18″ over the past 23 years. It doesn’t mean that 145″ or 85″\u00a0 are not normal snowfall amounts – they are certainly normal, and point out that drought years and wet years are a normal part of this land.\u00a0 If you took the height of every child in my grandson’s class, and determined that the average height is 4’9″, it doesn’t mean that my grandson, who is 5’2″ is not normal, he is just taller than average. So…years with 150″ of snow, or 90″ of snow, are perfectly normal.<\/p>\n

I also noticed that the driest years, at least out of the last 23, have been in the last dozen years. Beyond the “normalness” of varying snowfall amounts, might this recent string of drier years be a symptom of global warming? It is consistent with what climate scientists have been saying – that there will be lots of weather extremes, with a general movement towards drier winters in the Rockies, due to the increase of carbon in the atmosphere. But, we’ve had dry years in the past…even strings of dry years? Oops, here I am, moving into the global warming debate, which was not my intent (although, for the record, according to the vast majority of climate scientists, there is no debate – global warming is real, and it is at least partly caused by human activities. It’s only a debate in political and social circles).<\/p>\n

\"snowman\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The campers at MPEC’s Spring Break Camp this week probably aren’t thinking about any of this – they are just enjoying all of this great snow! Happy Spring Break!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With this winter’s snowfall now up to 88″, I decided to take a look at the park’s recent winter totals to see just how dry, or unusual, this one is. Since 1990, we’ve had five winters with less than 90″ of snow: 2001\/2002 with 48″; 2010\/2011 74.3″; 2005\/2006 74.5″; 2000\/2001 75″; and 2008\/2009 83.5″. If […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hikeandlearn.secure.retreat.guru\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hikeandlearn.secure.retreat.guru\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hikeandlearn.secure.retreat.guru\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hikeandlearn.secure.retreat.guru\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hikeandlearn.secure.retreat.guru\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hikeandlearn.secure.retreat.guru\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hikeandlearn.secure.retreat.guru\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hikeandlearn.secure.retreat.guru\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hikeandlearn.secure.retreat.guru\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}