wasted155 said:
You know, I like a little snow, also. The problem that I have is, here, the winters are so cold and the snow doesn't fly much. I am told its the humidity-- I have a buddy in Denver that says his winters have more snow and are much more mild than they were back here. I'll have to get SMX's input, since he lived in the midwest before heading out west.
The biggest difference between Denver - or any other place in the US southwest - and the US midwest is the dryness. The midwest is very humid, and the southwest very dry.
Anyone from the midwest or either US coast who moves to Denver is well advised to do the following upon arrival in Denver:
1. Buy a humidifier for your bedroom, or else be prepared to get up several times a night to drink water. You'll dehydrate in your sleep for about the first month here.
2. Be prepared to buy loads of skin lotion, because your skin will dry out. It took me a couple of months before my skin acclimated to the dryness.
Because of the dryness, snow evaporates quickly. I'd say the average rate is 3 inches of snow evaporating away per day, although it may stay around longer on grassy areas. Also because of the dryness, rain and snow often vaporize into the air as they're falling. Half the precipitation here never reaches the ground.
Consequently, most snow storms tend to be small - I rarely get more than 3 inches at my house. Although it should be noted I live on the east side of Denver, away from the mountains - and snow accumulation tends to be higher near the mountains. When I get 3 inches, the west side of town often gets 6 to 8. So I'd guess your friend who thinks Denver gets a lot of snow lives on the west side of town.
If you're accustomed to great deals of snow already, Denver ought to seem mild. If you're coming from a place like Florida that almost never sees snow, you'll think Denver is inside the Arctic Circle.
LooseCannon said:
Denver got rocked this year...
Not really. We got a lot of little storms all the way into late May, but no big ones. It was annoying, but that's all.
We got rocked in the 06-07 winter. A major blizzard, which we seem to get about every 3 or 4 years, followed by several storms of a foot or more each. For a month, we got a major storm every Thursday. Compared to that, this year was nothing.
I've been in way too many extremely hot places to enjoy anything under 65 degree F anymore........
