It's a week away on the GFS model and ensembles but I've been looking for signs of the first chase of 2009 for Tornado Alley (not Dixie or Ohio Alley). A closed low ejects into TX on Sunday Feb 8th with marginal moisture and 1000 J capes. I know it's a long shot and still a little early in the year, but our McLean, TX tornado of 2007 was on Feb 23rd so it can happen. Keeping an eye on it.
All day we were hearing reports of snow in Denver but on this particular day it was sunny and nice up at our house. We get a few of these days a year where the plains are completely fogged out and we get a view of an ocean of clouds from our house.
Tonight when the moon rose at 4:30pm I was able to shoot a few shots off before it slipped beind the clouds. The moon's orbit around Earth is elliptical, not circular. The moon is closest to Earth at it's perigee (compare to apogee, which occurs when the moon is at its most distant point away from Earth). The moon was 50,000 km closer to Earth and was the largest visible size tonight for all of 2009. These were shot from my house at 9000' looking northeast over Boulder, CO.
The fire caused the evacuation of 800 homes including my father's at Lake View Estates. At this late hour the winds have let up, the fire has layed down and burned around the ridge to the northwest of Boulder to finally snuf it out!
