Snowy Springtime Timelapse

During this transitional season, here in the central Rockies, as the Sun travels higher in the sky each day and hints of summer's warmth become more frequent, the weather responds to the nature of the season as well.  Often there are days when still-chilly northwesterly winds are accompanied by frequent snow showers in the unstable atmosphere of Spring -- unstable because the atmosphere retains its cold memory from winter, while the Earth's surface is being rapidly warmed by the relatively strong springtime Sun.  The timelapse animation below shows a typical springtime afternoon in the Rockies with frequent snow showers forming and spreading southeastward pushed by strong, cold winds from the northwest:
This 30-second timelapse shows about 3 hours of afternoon weather over the central Rockies from two weeks ago, 29 March.  The camera is pointed to the south-southeast.  The images used in the animation were taken once every 20 seconds.  The location is just west of the Continental Divide in the Colorado Rockies, about 100 miles due west of Sun's Broomfield, Colorado campus.

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[Weather Minutiae only a Meteorologist could Love] ( April 12, 2008 12:11 PM ) Permalink Comments [2]