Chinook Winds Can Be Phenomenal and Dangerous January 11, 2010

Eating Snow Can Be a Problem Unless Your Name is Chinook

Winds that flow over the top of mountains will often come down the leeward side the range.  When the airflow moves from the higher elevation to lower, there is compressional warming.    If you compress air, it heats up and when it expands it cools. That is why oxygen under pressure comes out cold when released.    In the American West,  such a downslope wind is referred to a Chinook Wind.  The word Chinook means “Snow Eater” because Native Americans had noticed that when a warm wind blew down the mountains, the snow would disappear.  That would be from rapid sublimation, or the snow turning directly to vapor as a result of the influx of warm, dry air.  It is said that in places on the Eastern Slope of the Rockies, Chinook Winds are so common that houses have sliding wooden shutters to protect windows from flying debris.  Flying debris?  Are the winds that strong?  Yes…sometimes they are that strong.

Chinook Arch

On this date in 1972, The National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado recorded a wind gust of 144 mph.  That is nearly category 5 hurricane strength.  South of Boulder at Rocky Flats, winds gusted to 105 mph and 90 mph gusts greeted downtown Boulder.  Stapleton Airport in Denver reported gusts to 53 mph on January 11, 1972 and 47 mph the following day.   In Boulder, more than 25 mobile homes were destroyed…some by wind and others by fire that erupted after they were overturned. 

Chinook Arch

Buildings suffered major damage, car windows were blown out, traffic lights blown away and trees, power lines and utility poles were down.  Some 75 families had to leave their apartment building due to severe structural damage.   Flying debris caused much of the damage, much as one might expect in severe weather or a hurricane.  Industrial complexes, government and private offices were evacuted out of fear of the results of flying matter and broken glass.  15 airplanes were damaged and hanger damage reported at Jefferson County Airport.   In Boulder, the damage added up to 2 million dollars and total reports for damage in the area came to about $25 million. 

Wild Pac NW Temp Swings-Daily Swings Jan 1972 Ft. Nelson BC

 So, what about the “snow eater” part.  In Denver, temperatures climbed to the mid 50′s.  It is not unusual for temperatures to rise 20 to 40 degrees in a matter of minutes.  The winds typically come from the northwest or west with the mountain crest sporting the “chinook arch.”  At the outset of a chinook, temperatures can vary wildly as warm air mixes with cold.  So, one spot may feel a 30 degree temperature rise in 15 minutes only to feel the rush of much colder air before the warming begins again.  In the Black Hills of South Dakota,  the town of Spearfish in 1943 experienced a 49 degree rise in temperature in just 2 minutes.  90 minutes after that, the mercury dropped 58 degrees in less than a half hour.  The low for the time frame was -4 F and a high of 54 F.  The system in 1972 was not isolated as on January 15, 1972 there was a 103 degree rise in temperature in 24 hours in Loma, Montana where the mercury went from 54 below zero to 49 degrees above zero.   Here are some other significant temperature rises:  Granville, ND on Feb. 21,1918 went from -33F to 50F in 12 hours, Fort Assiniboine, MT rose from -5 F to 37F in 15 minutes, Dec. 1 1896 folks in Kipp, MT  felt the mercury rise of 34 degrees in just two minutes and a total daily rise of 80 degrees and 30 inches of snow disappeared in half a day. 

The United States is not the only place to get this type of phenomena, but North America is the only place where they are called Chinook.  Elsewhere, they are known as Foehn Winds, but Chinook is much more fun.  There is some notion that the term Chinook derived from people of a region in the Columbia River Valley, the Chinooks, who first reported the winds to the white settlers.  But I like the Snow Eater story better.

National Snow Cover Still 59% of USA

Weather Bottom Line:  The Monday snow was pretty lame.  Not enough moisture.  Now, some folks may get above freezing on Tuesday afternoon as the clouds break but I suspect that the official end of the below freezing temperatures will be on Wednesday afternoon or maybe even midday.   The long wave pattern is finally changing and the cold air will retreat back into Canada.  That will mark about 12.5 days since we were above freezing in Louisville, one of the longest stretches on record, though I believe the longest such freezing streak runs to 17 days.   It’s going to be short of my early prognastication in late 2009 that we wouldn’t get above freezing until the 15th, but the 13th is close enough…or long enough.  Now, we get to the 40′s Wed through Friday.  There is still that big low that will develop in the Gulf.  The southern branch of the jet stream will swing down out of the southwest into Texas and a low will form. It will then eject into the SE US.  The jury is still out but at this time, most modeling data does not drag down cold air sufficiently to give us snow…but we’ll see.

Dreams Can Become a Gusher, But Don’t Call This Plummer January 9, 2010

Spindletop Viewing Her Gusher

On This Date In History: One man prospered on another man’s given up dream. In Southeast Texas, near the present city of Beaumont, there was a large rise in the otherwise flat landscape. It was known to the locals as Big Hill. It was known for its natural gas that seeped from it. People would have fun striking matches and igniting small, brief infernos. When it rained the puddles would bubble. In 1888, Captain George Washington O’Brien bought up much of the land surrounding and including the hill because he thought there was oil there.

Lucas's Patience Paid Off

Beaumont resident Patillo Higgins went to Pennsylvania to study the oil business there and became convinced that there was oil under the hill, then designated as Spindletop Hill. Higgins was looking for ways to fuel his brick factory and knew that in Pennsylvania that brickmakers used oil. George Washington Carroll believed in Higgins and the two formed a partnership. Higgins and Carroll bought the remaining land around Spindletop and eventually partnered up with O’Brien and JF Lanier to form the Gladys City Oil Company and had dreams of Gladys City becoming a booming industrial town.

By 1903, Spindletop Hill Disappeared

To make a long story short, Gladys Oil didn’t find oil and they gave up, signing a lease-sell agreement with Anthony F. Lucas. After two years of failure, on this date in 1901, Spindletop blew. After spewing all of the drillpipe and mud skyward, a 6 inch wide stream of oil flowed 200 feet in the air. There had never been a gusher like that before and it took them 9 days to cap it. The 800,000 barrels of oil formed a lake of oil…I don’t remember how many acres wide it was or how many feet deep. And remember, a barrel of oil is 30 some-odd gallons. Beaumont tripled its population in 3 months and the modern oil business took off. Exxon, Texaco, Chevron and Mobil all have their roots in Spindletop. On that date America’s annual oil output was 64 million barrels a day. By 1909, because of Spindletop, it was near 200 million per day.  Today, some call Spindletop the Boom the Shook the World.

Lucas died in 1921, but his legacy lives on.  The Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal was established in 1936 “to recognize distinguished achievements in improving the technique and practice of finding and producing petroleum.”   Not only is Lucas credited by some as being most responsible for changing civilization, he also invented many tools and methods that are still used in petroleum exploration and recovery today.

O’Brien, Carrol, Higgins and the rest gave up on their dream. Don’t you make the same mistake.

These Guys Caught the Plummer!

Don’t Hang with this Plummer: Cyrus Skinner was released from San Quentin Prison in California for the first time on August 18, 1853. Skinner isn’t a well known desperado from the old west but he certainly was notorious.

Plummer Had More Hair on his Chin than I have on my head

He grew up in Ohio and began robbing people at an early age. He moved to California with the Gold Rush in 1850 where he continued his robbing ways. He was caught and went to San Quentin. After he got out on this date in 1853, he started robbing again and got caught and sent back again. This time he escaped, started robbing and was caught again and sentenced to 15 years in San Quentin. This time, he met up with a guy named Henry Plummer. Plummer was released and Skinner escaped again in 1860 and this time went to Idaho to meet up with Plummer.

Bannack 1881

Now, Plummer had actually been a sheriff in Nevada City, CA. But, he was having an affair with a miner’s wife and when confronted by the miner, Plummer shot him dead in a duel. Plummer was sent to prison where he met Skinner. Plummer got out due to tuberculosis or due to people asking for a pardon, depending on the source you believe. Anyway, when Plummer got out, he

Plummer's Gallows Today, Rebuilt Following Vandalism...maybe it was Plummer's Ghost!

turned to the other side of the law and he formed a road gang that robbed and murdered about 100 people in Idaho and Montana. When Plummer arrived in Bannack, Montana he killed the one man in town that was aware of his hoodlum past. Henry must have been quite the smooth talker because, not only was he acquitted of the murder, the town went and elected him Sherrif. By day he enforced the law and by night, he and his gang robbed and killed people at will. The gang became known as the Innocents because their not so secret password was “I am innocent.” Skinner was part of that group and was said to have been one of the worst offenders, killing people for no reason. The town folk got tired of it all and formed a vigilante group that one by one, rounded up the bad guys, held street trials and hung them. During this process, one of the bad guys ratted out Plummer.

The evidence mounted and the town vigilantes went after their two-timing sherrif and they eventually captured Plummer and two of his henchmen. With the winds howling on a bitter cold winter day, on this date in 1864, Plummer got hung on a gallows. The builder of the gallows that brought an end to Henry Plummer was none other than Henry Plummer himself. When confronted, Skinner tried to avoid the noose by running away, hoping to get shot….but the vigilante’s wouldn’t oblige. Nope, they caught him alive and then they hung him. It’s good for a rampaging vigilante mob to have principals. I suppose the lesson here is to not follow in the footsteps of a Plummer! Certainly not this one, whom you can read more about here.

NAM 00Z Tue Relative Vorticity

US Snow Depth Jan 9 2010

Weather Bottom Line:  It’s Saturday and light snow continues to fall.  I was amazed that after the sun went down we still had persistent flurry activity with intermittent light snowfall on Friday night.  Now, the clouds are hanging tough….but, I”m tellin’ ya..if the clouds break in time late Saturday night, then we fall to near zero.  Most models do not show this and have us in the low teens.  But, the GFS now suddenly takes us to the low single digits prior to sunrise on Sunday.  That would be a result of that particular model showing the clouds breaking.  We’ll see.  Now, the longwave pattern is going to change and we will come out of the deep freeze.  But, there will be one final assault.  Not big, but still interesting.  Rolling down the eastern flank of the ridge will be a shortwave.  That will approach us on Monday afternoon into Monday night.  It will bring another round of snow.  The GFS isn’t so bullish on snow amounts but does have several hours of duration of light snow or flurries.  The NAM wants to toss out something like 3/4″ of an inch.  This feature will also hold off the warm up.  I’ve seen some public forecasts of highs above freezing on Monday with the idea being that there will be a surge of warmer air ahead of the approaching shortwave trof.  I don’t buy it.  Maybe Tuesday afternoon in the wake of the vorticity maxima we get above freezing. If not, it will be Wednesday.    We get back to closer to seasonal averages for the rest of the week and then next Sunday, there is a potential interesting scenario unfolding, but the solutions are in flux so at this  point nothing concrete can be determined. 

On January 9, 2010, 62.7 percent of the lower 48 is covered by snow with an average depth of 6.3 inches (National Snow Depth).  The analytical output claims there is a maximum of over 900 inch snow depth some place, but I cannot locate that spot.  I question the veracity of the claim.