Month with most snow days?

[Scott P]

Just for fun:

Q: On Pikes Peak, which month, on average do you think has the most snow days (snow days as defined as the average number of days that snow falls on)?

[San Juan Ron]

Here in the San Juan's, it has to be mid-Apr thru mid-May. Not sure on Pikes peak. Ron

[Scott P]

Here in the San Juan's, it has to be mid-Apr thru mid-May. Not sure on Pikes peak. Ron

Pikes Peak was chosen because it's the only 14er in which actual data is available. Answer will be revealed Friday, but keep the guesses coming. You could look up the data, but that would kill the fun of guessing.

[JTOlson26]

For some reason it seems it always snow on Pikes in May. Weird weather patterns emerge on/around that peak during the transition from "winter" to "summer." Just my guess.

[MonGoose]

I voted for April but I wouldn't be surprised if the answer is July or August because they're including sleet and graupel. I guess I'll just have to wait until Friday to find out.

[Scott P]

I voted for April but I wouldn't be surprised if the answer is July or August because they're including sleet and graupel

I think graupel may be reported under hail? That's a good question though. (The data seems to support that it is recorded as hail).

[ylingli]

This is a fun post, so I thought I'd chime in! I voted for May for 2 reasons: I think historically it may be March or April, but it was definitely May last year. My buddy Larry & I do a monthly Pikes Peak summit, and there was SO much snow up there in May last year (much more than any other month!). I think the weather patterns have changed the past couple of years, so it depends on when the actual data was recorded. Also, the 2nd reason was because the May vote was lagging behind, so I added another vote to May! Lol!

[San Juan Ron]

Month with most precipitation (any kind): Either July or August with the t-storms. It's August here in San Juan's, not sure of PP.

Month with most days of precipitation (any kind): July or August with the t-storms.

Month with most snow: Has to be March everywhere in the CO Mtns. Right?

Month with most days of snow: Either April or May, we really dry off towards the end of May and into June here in the San Juan's, not sure about PP.

On Friday, you can tell me how my guesses went. Ron

[Scott P]

Month with most snow: Has to be March everywhere in the CO Mtns. Right?

No. In much of the Front Range, it's April:

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?co1681" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?co4750" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?co1060" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In the mountains around here, December and January (February isn't that far behind) are our big snow months:

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?co7936" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In Aspen, it's roughly equal in snowfall from December through March:

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?co0370" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

On the Grand Mesa, the snowiest month is January, with March and December lagging a little behind:

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?co5520" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The above is true for the SNOTEL sites higher in the mountains in those regions as well, but the SNOTEL station averages are harder to link to.

There are many reasons for the differences in snowfall, but some of the reasons are as follows. The Front Range has a lot of Spring storms enhances with up-slope effect and when cold fronts collide moisture from the south. The San Juans get a lot of March storms coming in from the Southwest as well. In Northwest Colorado, most of our snow comes from storms from the Pacific Northwest, which are most active in December and January.

[Scott P]

Bumping thread up for one more day.

[EatinHardtack]

I've lived in the springs for 10 years. While I am no expert and haven't lived here as long as others I think April has to be the winner. I've seen that mountain dryer than dirt in calendar winter more often than not. But when Spring rolls around we start to see moisture. Even in dry winters there always seems to be fun skiing on the peak in May after spring storms.

[Scott P]

And the answer is.....

MAY!!!

Good job to the 19% who got the right answer and for everyone else who tried.

pikes.PNG (37.88 KiB) Viewed 324 times

http://www.summitpost.org/pikes-peak-we ... ics/337874" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I suspect that April may have more inches of snow that fall than May, but they would probably be close. I do not know where to find the data on inches of snow.

Although May is warmer than many other months, most days still fail to reach freezing on the highest mountains. I suspect that several of the other high mountains in the eastern ramparts of the Front Range also have their snowiest month in May (by inches or by snow days), but weather stations and data are very sparse for the high mountains.