Snowstorm taxed people’s memories
VAIL – Last week’s storm that hit Colorado had people digging deep into their memories to find comparisons even as they dug deep to clear sidewalks and driveways.
It was the “storm of the century,” said Vail Resorts, referring to the 21st century.
A few miles away at the old mining town of Red Cliff, people were drawing comparison to storms not seen in 30 to 35 years.
“These are like the years of the late ’70s and early ’80s,” says Jim Lamont, who has been in Red Cliff about that long.
Down-valley in Eagle, some people thought it was the most in 40-plus years.
In the Aspen area, the 24 inches was the most ever for a 24-hour period, according to the National Weather Service.
“Holy bejesus! Looks like 2 feet of new since yesterday and just keeps going and going and going.....” a Basalt woman posted on Facebook.
Jim Markalunas, who has been keeping weather records in Aspen since about the end of World War II, told The Aspen Times the all-time snowfall record for January, which is not normally particularly snowy, is 72 inches, set in the 1950s.
“It was a biggy,” he said of last week’s storm even as another set of storms was on its way.
Schools closed in Aspen because of concerns about having people on the roads.
Students also got a day out of the classroom in Vail and the Eagle Valley. The Vail Daily reports that schools also had snow days in 2008 and 1982. Deeper into time, school closings were far more rare.
But at 10,152-foot Leadville, the highest school district in North America, there is a record of just one school closing since classes began in 1860. That was two years ago.
Talking summer in the dead of winter
DENVER – The Ski Industries of America had its annual trade show last week in Denver, and what a busy place it was. The top floor of the Colorado Convention Center was filled with booths displaying all the items you can expect to see next summer at your local ski retailing store.
Downstairs, in the Four Seasons Ballroom, the seasons were being parsed in different ways. On one side of the divider, DestiMetrics held a conference devoted to the prospects of increased summer tourism in mountain towns.
On the other side on Friday morning, Rolling Stone contributing editor Jeff Goodell spoke about rising sea levels, global warming and the virtual certainty that winters will get shorter and summers longer.
For Miami, global warming is an immediate problem. The Atlantic Ocean is already rising, as Goodell documented in a recent story for the magazine, with profound consequences for places just a few paces above sea level.
Mountain resorts that depend upon skiing, of course, have a somewhat different outcome. Goodell talked about the changing jet streams that may explain the greater variability of snow. That’s one explanation for why Mammoth, in southern California, has been getting at least so-so snow while the Tahoe resorts are getting skunked.
That ski towns will become more profoundly impacted by the warming climate is a cinch. Goodell pointed out that seven degrees Fahrenheit of heating is already locked into the system, in the ocean and in the atmosphere.
“I don’t fear so much the loss of ice as I fear the loss of humanity,” he said.
Garfield County wants looser gas regs
GLENWOOD SPRINGS – In Glenwood Springs, no climate crisis is perceived. The issue there is the release of methane from natural gas pipelines and drilling sites.
Colorado has become one of the world’s boom spots for energy, thanks to new drilling techniques, but state regulators are looking at tightening oversight to reduce emissions. If methane escapes into the atmosphere, it is 23 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.
Stop it? Not if it’s inconvenient, says Garfield County officials. The Aspen Times reports that county commissioners there are saying that local natural gas wells should be exempted from the stringent requirements imposed along Colorado’s Front Range.
The wells operating in Garfield County are already operating at a loss, and burdening them with more regulatory requirements could harm the bottom line, said one oil and gas industry representative at a recent meeting.
Ski towns concerned over oil trains
REVELSTOKE, B.C. – Last year, a runaway train containing crude oil derailed in Lac Mégantic, Quebec, killing 47 people. Could the same thing happen in a ski town?
Plenty of ski towns have major rail lines passing through them: Winter Park, Truckee and Bozeman, among others.
And there is anxiety in Revelstoke, Canada, where one of the municipal councilors, Gary Starling, recently uttered what the Revelstoke Times Review says was an impassioned speech. A retired railroader, Starling said incidents are flying under the radar, and he’s concerned about safety.
In the United States, shipments of oil increased from 10,800 carloads to 400,000 carloads per day from 2001-12. In Canada, the increase was from 500 carloads to 160,000 carloads.
The Times Review notes that the two agencies in Canada and the United States with parallel responsibilities for rail safety recently issued joint recommendations to improve the transportation of crude oil. They call for tougher standards for tank cars, revised route planning and analysis, and greater emergency response plans.
If only Flat Creek would stay flat
JACKSON, Wyo. – Flat Creek wanders through the town of Jackson, but this winter it hasn’t been flat enough. When the water freezes, it creates dams that cause water to flood over the banks, threatening adjacent homes.
This isn’t a new problem, but the flooding has been particularly severe this winter, says the Jackson Hole News&Guide.
At a recent meeting called to address the problem, one solution discussed was to drill more wells along the creek. Several already exist for this purpose, drawing warmer aquifer water into the creek.
But this warming by aquifer water remains effective for only 2,400 feet downstream; by then, the water has chilled and starts to freeze. More would be needed to prevent winter flooding. And anyway, points out Town Councilor Jim Stanford, leaving the wells on through winter would pump about 322 million gallons of water from the aquifer, a significant drain. By comparison, Jackson uses only 3 million gallons a day.
One obvious solution isn’t really a solution. That would be to limit development along the creek. “If we could rewind this, we wouldn’t have allowed any development along the creek,” says Bob McLaurin, the town manager.
Sun Valley partners with Cali ski areas
KETCHUM, Idaho – Another friends-with-benefits ski pass has been announced. Sun Valley Resort has partnered with Sugar Bowl and Royal Gorge resorts in California. Sugar Bowl is a downhill ski area and Royal Gorge a cross-country ski area, both of them in the Truckee-Tahoe area.
Jack Sibbach, the spokesman for Sun Valley Resort, said the pass hasn’t drawn staggering numbers, but the Californians who have visited Sun Valley’s slopes love the cross-promotion.
Whistler boomers comparing notes
WHISTLER, B.C. – Whistler’s Pique reports a burgeoning population of baby boomers already arrived or soon to reach what some call senior citizenship. Just how many isn’t clear, but the numbers are growing as people retire from their jobs elsewhere and move to the mountains to lead active lives.
But do they have different wants and needs than others? That seems to be the driving idea behind a recent meeting that drew 80 people to Our Lady of the Mountains Church. Among the questions they were asked is what aging in place meant to them and what problems they are encountering.
– Allen Best
More Mountain Town News can be found at http://mountaintownnews.net.
In this week's issue...
- January 25, 2024
- Bagging it
State plastic bag ban is in full effect, but enforcement varies
- January 26, 2024
- Paper chase
The Sneer is back – and no we’re not talking about Billy Idol’s comeback tour.
- January 11, 2024
- High and dry
New state climate report projects continued warming, declining streamflows