Well, most of the time.
When I went to Ft. Collins for my sister-in-law's wedding (Christmas, 2006), it snowed solid for a week, with drifts as much as 4 feet on the ground. One storm after another. The snow removal equipment had no place to put the snow. So, half the parking lots were full of snow, and there were canyons everywhere. All of the turn lanes on the major roads were blocked by huge berms. And it slowly changed to very bumpy ice, since it never got adequately cleared.
I-25 was OK, at least (mercifully).
That was an entertaining one.
Two blizzards back to back within a week, the second mostly hitting outside the populated areas, but the kicker was the temperatures never came up after the first one, so snow didn't melt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Holiday_Blizzards_(2006–2007)
Then a THIRD small storm came on Jan 4-5. Basically, the normal snow/warm/melt pattern was wrecked for three weeks with three separate storms, back to back.
Very rare. Didn't help that the first storm wave was the 4th largest snowstorm in State history. Once it was on the ground, the temperatures had to come up to get rid of it. It never really went away for a long time that year.
March '03 collapsed the awning on the back of my house in one big heavy weat dump that turned cold and kept dumping and dumping. When the awning came crashing down during the WARM melting days right afterward (piles of snow three feet high were sliding off the two-story roof and falling on the already overloaded awning which wasn't safe to get on top of and shovel off the intense snow load), it knocked the electrical meter out of the panel.
That was more interesting than 2006, for me anyway.
2006 was just dump after dump that wouldn't melt. And over the holiday, many people who needed to travel, weren't going anywhere. That's normal for our blizzards... you just sit home and enjoy some soup... it'll usually be over with in three days... but over Christmas and New Years always gets everyone cranky as hell. Lots of folks had time off work, but were just stuck in their houses watching Oprah. LOL.
Since 2006 also stayed South, it hammered my house... adding another almost-two-feet and drifts to the already immovable stuff from the first dump, just kinda sucked. The piles in the front yard lasted months, after the 26" dual-stage snowblower was used to clear both driveways and most of the neighbor's walks and driveway entrances.
If you grew up here, you remembered Christmas of 1982... so having it happen again once in a while (2006), ain't no big deal. You're prepared. If you're a new Coloradoan from California living in Highlands Ranch, you're probably really unhappy. You'd be ready for the next one, though...
http://www.examiner.com/slideshow/denver-s-christmas-eve-blizzard-of-1982
http://neighbors.denverpost.com/album_pic.php?pic_id=13329
1982 was MUCH more snow than 2006.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/bou/?n=xmassnow_2008
We had between 14 people stranded at my grandparent's house by the blizzard in '82. Folks slept everywhere, everyone was happy, people enjoyed the "camp" feel, the guys dug out one vehicle and managed to get it partway out to a store and then hiked for some essentials (we're talking toothbrushes here, and more TP and stuff like that... and some special requests... not food... Great Depression grandparents had a real pantry and deep freeze and easily fed 14 people and some of the neighbors for days...), and hiked back and brought the vehicle back down the hill.
Makes me a little sad thinking about it... grandparents all dead/gone now... dad's in his 60s and living out on the prairie (probably no 14 person Christmas parties with family in my future, except all the kids on Karen's side with her family... me and my sisters haven't had kids... so we kick the nephews and neices around...)... definitely happy days in 1982.
Okay, geeze... thanks for the trip down memory lane... LOL!
I'll take a good Colorado Christmas blizzard anytime. Doesn't bother me a bit. Doesn't happen often, either. And if at all possible, I'd prefer it be a couple of weeks later... it's more fun to stay home from work than have holiday plans jacked up.
