Colorado Wind Watch Page

    The eastern slopes of Colorado's Front Range and nearby plains are occasionally subject to severe downslope windstorms. These windstorms are not related to severe thunderstorms. Instead, they are caused by a special type of disturbance caused by air that is forced to flow over the mountains. Under certain conditions, these wave disturbances can amplify and propagate up into the atmosphere, causing extreme turbulence for aircraft. And when conditions are just right, the waves can accelerate air down the lee side of the mountain leading to extreme surface winds. 

    Downslope windstorms usually occur several times each year along Colorado's Front Range. Severe windstorms affect the Boulder area most frequently, but areas from Golden all the way up to Fort Collins are not immune. These storms can be quite localized, with the strongest winds only extending a few miles out onto the Plains, or sometimes just staying in the Foothills. In the winter, downslope winds are often characterized by unseasonably warm temperatures (sometimes leading to dramatic temperature rises), and are called Chinook winds. At other times, downslope windstorms occur under cold advection (e.g. during the passage of a Pacific cold front), and thus, are accompanied by falling temperatures. Then they are called Bora winds. Fort Collins seems to experiences their strongest winds from Bora-type events, while Boulder seems to get its most extreme winds during Chinook events.   

    The purpose of this page is to provide resources for watching current conditions for use during a downslope wind event. The causes of downslope windstorms are discussed on a separate page, click here.

Surface Observations

MesoWest stations for Northeast Colorado (a clickable map) MesoWest Graphical Display of Colorado Stations

Stations which frequently report high winds in downslope windstorms

Boulder/Golden stations NCAR Mesa Lab NCAR Foothills Lab Boulder Water Treatment Plant NRELWind Technology Center (Hwy 93)      Daily Plot of Wind Speed        Daily Plot of Peak Wind Speed

  Fort Collins stations CSU Campus          5 day plots    daily climate summary        MESOWest interface for this station Christman Field      5 day plots    daily climate summary

 

Foothills stations (listed north to south) Red Feather Lakes    8215 ft    (northwest of Fort Collins) Bagg Mountain           7142 ft    (west of Fort Collins) Redstone                     6161 ft    (west of Fort Collins) Estes Park Weather from Yipyap.com     [Graphs]     Unofficial station, has nice time plots Estes Park (C078)      7808 ft    (west of Loveland) Estes Park RAWS       7822 ft   (west of Loveland)    Lilly Lake                      8999 ft    (southwest of Loveland) Berthoud West           5522 ft    (west of Berthoud) Allenspark                   8241 ft    (northwest of Boulder) Cal-Wood Ranch       7760 ft    (northwest of Boulder) Ward                         c. 8900 ft    (west of Boulder) Blue Mountain            8050 ft    (south of Coal Creek Canyon, southwest of Boulder) I-70 at Genesee           7398 ft    (west of Golden)

  Ridge top Stations Squaw Mountain        11,401 ft    (south of Idaho Springs)

Niwot Ridge Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Meteorological Data C1 Station                        3022 m    (9,912 ft) Albion Station                 3259 m    (10,692 ft)        Saddle Station                3528 m    (11,572 ft)        Check out how the weather looks via the Tundra Cam Green Lake Station        3570 m    (11,712 ft)        Located in a valley, this station often reports colder temperature than the stations up on the ridge D1 Station                        3739 m    (12,264 ft)        This station is atop Niwot Ridge and often reports some of the highest wind speeds of any station in Colorado Arikare Glacier Station  3814 m    (12,513 ft)       Also located in the Green Lakes Valley

 

Current Conditions for all Colorado Stations from University of Utah's Department of Meteorology

 

Regional Radar Imagery

KFTG -- Denver/Boulder Short Range Base Reflectivity     [Loop] Short Range Composite Reflectivity    [Loop] One Hour Total Precipitation    [Loop] Storm Total Precipitation    [Loop]

 

Regional Satellite Imagery

UCAR-RAP Regional Satellite Visible    [Java Loop] False Color Infrared    [Java Loop] Water Vapor     [Java Loop] Interactive Weather Satellite Imagery Viewers from NASA GHCC

 

Regional Weather Maps

Regional Surface Plot

 

Area Forecast Discussions

Denver-Boulder AFD Cheyenne AFD Pueblo AFD

 

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