Snow Job

I can show you a Striated Linticular cloud. I can spot a Cumulus and differentiate it from a Nimbus. I know the pinkish color that predicts Hail. I can identify a Wall cloud and point out the Out-flow.

But don't ask me to predict the weather. I couldn't begin to describe "Quadruple Atomic Doppler Radar" to you. I couldn't do the math to show you where the jet stream and high and low pressure systems are right now. I could in no way analyse a satellite picture of a weather system to your satisfaction. I say all that but must warn you that a week from now some things are going to be under water around here that aren't supposed to be under water. With less science on my side than the Farmer's Almanac I'm predicting some flooding. I'm basing it on 20 years of chasing storms at the will of the newsroom. So?

Well driving into town I see this white line along the mountain range that from my  eyeball puts the May 18th snowpack at about 9,000 feet. That's a little low for the 18th. This is the first year in seven that most of the mountain reservoirs are close to average depth. The air conditioner in my car is on the fritz so I'm pretty sure of the outside temperature and the knowledge that that spot on the thermometer can turn snow to "wawa." I know we are approaching the weeks of the most rapid snowmelt without any extenuating circumstances. Now, honestly I've seen these conditions before and the result has just been some minor flooding with the only loss of life a few rabbits. But there is something else going on I  seldom see or hear meterologists talk about until after the fact. It always gets interesting when you see them scratch their heads. They do that, just like we all do, when something doesn't behave according to expectations.

Okay, I'm talking about this tropical storm that is in the Pacific? Now that's not that uncommon, but those storms tend to stay in the Pacific Ocean and visit places like Hawaii. This one is swirling our way folks. Okay, its way down south, but it's target seems to be the Western Gulf. My experience is, amateur though it be, we're in for some gully washers. We just need one little ol' low pressure system here in the nation's mid-section and it's going to suck all that moisture northward.  We're going to get tropical for a while. Naturally curly hair is going to be the regional norm.

I don't want to be an "Alarmist," a "Chicken Little," a  "Nostradomus." But I wouldn't feel like I was doing my civic duty if I didn't advise you look around for high ground.  I hope I'm wrong. I'm sorry but the snowpack just shouldn't be that low on May 18th. Tropical storms are supposed to go the other way. And lets face it, the rabbit population is out of control.