wind patterns in colorado

After the front passes, the winds can reach speeds of 50-60 mph. In fact, FDN and GLC are located on the right sidewalls of their respective valleys, and MVW is located on a left sidewall, thus following the general rule illustrated in Fig. The weakness of the along-valley winds is caused by the formation of deep temperature inversions within the confined Colorado Plateaus Basin that are not destroyed diurnally and can persist for many days (Whiteman et al. LEY is located at the bottom of the canyon where the Colorado River emerges from Glen Canyon and begins to flow southwestward across the Marble Platform. Shaded relief digital elevation model of the Marble Platform area. Meteor. Soc., 655–672. MEX is located in a small basin on the San Juan River (rather like the basin in the Little Colorado Valley) that is up valley from a narrow tortuous canyon. The remaining sites are located along the Colorado River and its tributaries. Glen Canyon (GLC) experiences low persistence from midnight to sunrise, but high persistence during the day and in the evening hours. The sixth diurnal persistence pattern is a miscellaneous category in which persistence variations are not closely coupled to sunrise and sunset times. On the floor of the basin, temperature differences can form between subbasins, but the narrow and tortuous canyons that connect the subbasins in the Grand Canyon region restrict the interbasin flows and cause stagnant cold air pools to form within the basins. Wind stations on the down-valley sides of the subbasin centers will therefore exhibit drainage winds that flow toward the subbasin center (i.e., up valley) during nighttime and upslope winds that flow away from the subbasin center (i.e., down valley) during daytime. This explanation for winds blowing in apparent violation of valley wind theory was suggested previously by Munn (1966). Meteor. Indian Gardens (ING) is an example, although persistence decreases somewhat at this site during midday when the sun makes a brief appearance. Winds were generally upslope and up valley during daytime, and downslope and down valley during nighttime, as expected from theory. CAM is at a low elevation on the western edge of the basin, and nighttime winds here drain from the W or WNW into the basin. Meteor., 28, 427–437. Thermally driven winds turn clockwise with time on the left sidewall of a valley (looking up valley), while turning counterclockwise with time on the opposing sidewall. Whereas Chinooks start as warm, moist air over the Pacific, Bora winds originate in very cold, dry inland areas of Canada and the Arctic and remain cool. (970) 586-1206 The 24 dots in each vector diagram are connected in time order and the enclosed area is shaded. These downslope winds flow northeastward across the sloping Marble Platform. Winds are variable at this site during much of the day, although persistent northwesterly flows occur at midnight as air flows over the drainage divide into the Little Colorado Valley. Daytime and nighttime wind directions at individual sites in this area are steady and the wind patterns exhibit an overall spatial coherence among the different sites. Wind speeds are moderately strong in the early evening, but decrease through the night. At Phantom Ranch, wind data were collected from a 3-m tripod using a Met One model 14A cup anemometer (starting threshold 0.4 m s−1, accuracy ±0.1 m s−1) and model 24A wind vane (threshold 0.4 m s−1, accuracy ±5°). The Pennsylvania State University, 224 pp. Davidson and Rao (1958) found that conditions were favorable for nighttime drainage when winds aloft were less than 6 m s−1. Meteor., 38, 1118–1130, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(1999)038<1118:WSWPIT>2.0.CO;2. For sites exposed to both valley and slope wind systems, the direction of turning is related to the orographic slope of the wind site (Hawkes 1947). All three sites in the Basin and Range Province [Ash Fork (ASH), FDN, and MVW] exhibit this behavior. The data were collected as part of the Winter Visibility Study, funded by Arizona’s Salt River Project (SRP). Geophys., 52, 408–449. On clear days, the daily incoming radiation was found to be about 80% of the daily extraterrestrial total, so that the 64% cutoff effectively defined partly cloudy days as those days receiving 80% or more of the clear day radiation totals. The remaining sites along the Colorado River are part of a distinctive diurnal thermally driven regional wind system, in which up-valley winds occur during nighttime and down-valley winds occur during daytime, in contradiction to the expectations of valley wind theory. Frequent showers and thunderstorms continue well into the summer. These persistency patterns are produced by a number of different mechanisms that will be discussed for the individual sites in the next section. During daytime, winds reverse and flow out of the Lake Powell Basin in all directions, including a flow to the southwest over Glen Canyon, up the Marble Platform and up the Kaibab Plateau. Many sites exhibit clockwise (FDN, GLC, and CDR) or counterclockwise (MVW, DSV, HOP, and LEY) turning of wind direction with time. DNG and Mexican Hat (MEX) exhibit this behavior. The Colorado Plateau has the meteorological characteristics of a basin (Whiteman et al. Soc., 87, 13–23. Meteor., 28, 497–517. During daytime, the drainage flows decrease, reversing briefly in midday, and turning in the direction of nearby heated terrain (San Francisco Mountains) during the afternoon. 1. 45., Amer. The along-valley flows are also weak there because of the blocking of airflow by narrow and tortuous canyons that connect the subbasins. Meteor., 27, 594–598. A north–south line of plateaus and high mountains separates the western side of the CPB from the lower-elevation Basin and Range Province farther west. This pattern complements the electricity production from solar power in Colorado which peaks during the summer months. Ash Fork, Fredonia, and Meadview were located in the Basin and Range Province; the remaining sites were located within the Colorado Plateaus Basin. Part II: Energy budget. The lack of persistence (Fig. The Grand Canyon and Fredonia Pass are major gaps in this line. The remaining sites along the Colorado River are part of a distinctive diurnal thermally driven regional wind system, in which up-valley winds occur during nighttime and down-valley winds occur during daytime, in contradiction to the expectations of valley wind theory. The high-elevation sites are, nonetheless, well exposed to synoptic-scale flows and have generally high wind speeds, even though thermally driven flow components are low. During daytime, winds become more persistent as air flows out of the pools in an up-valley direction. Salida - Monarch Pass, CO; Most Humid 70.38% Gunnison, Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport, CO; Least Humid 16.14% Vance Brand Airport, CO; Highest Pressure 1029.8 hPa Pagosa Springs, Wolf Creek Pass, CO; Lowest Pressure 1010.8 hPa Boulder Municipal Airport, CO; Get an account to remove ads Weather Wind Rainfall Sun Moon UV More

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