Chinook Rage

I am excited about football. Not just because the broncos are hosting the AFC title game, i just get happy during the playoffs. Sklimps is going to the game...so is K (you big jerk) but i am going to cozy up to a nice warm television. Order some pizza, have a beer (or perhaps a caffeine free soda---solidarity and all) and enjoy the game and-most importantly-the replays. For a brief moment at the Toronto game last night I panicked and thought i had scheduled PC work on the superbowl. Luckily, i am not that stupid.


Two Minutes Hate
What is the deal with all this wind? It is out of control. I dont remember a winter where it was so dry and windy. My hair (which I am sure you all know i take great pride in...snicker snicker) is all kinds of messed up. If I was wearing a skirt it would constantly be blowing up and over my head. Every drive into Boulder for work is fraught with peril.

As windy as it is now...it is nothing compared to the windstorm of 1967. According to my favorite weatherman Mike Nelson, the "...major windstorm hit the area with gusts up to 84 m.p.h. downtown and 125 m.p.h. at NCAR in Boulder. It was described as the worst single windstorm in Boulder's history in terms of damage, which topped a half million dollars." I suppose that would be worse then my hair getting mussed.

I do believe that these winds would qualify as Chinook winds, " a warm dry wind that descends the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains."

Other interesting wind names from around the world:

* The Mistral in France – a cold, north-westerly wind that blows down the Rhone valley.

* The Harmattan in West Africa, which blows south from the Sahara and brings dust storms and very dry air.

* The Levante wind in the Mediterranean – an easterly wind bringing mild, moist air to Gibraltar and the mainland of Spain and Africa.

* The Pampero in Argentina – a very cold south westerly wind formed, like many cold winds, in the middle of a continent - in this case South America. It blows across the Pampas grasslands in Argentina.


Learning is Fun but this wind has got to stop. Where is my snow man?