by Chris Messner

Created on: March 02, 2010

Weather in Colorado? I'd have to categorize it as extreme. When it's nice, it is extremely nice, and when it's bad, it is extremely bad.

I've lived in Colorado Springs for 17 years, so that's sufficient background to understand and write about how the weather works around here. I'm not a meteorologist, so I guess I'm not an expert, but I've dealt with it so I know a lot about it from a resident's perspective.

Much is made about Colorado Springs' "300 days of sunshine a year". In case you didn't realize it, if the sun is out at 9AM, but gone for the day at 1 PM, that counts as a "day of sunshine", and that's what happens almost every day during the area's warmer months. So, what you actually get are a lot of gorgeous mornings, but cloudy and/or stormy afternoons. It is extremely rare to have a bright, sunny day here from dawn to dusk, probably no more than a dozen times a year.

Speaking of the "warmer months", Colorado Springs is a place that can, and does, get snow in all four seasons. In fact, we had snow here on the last full day of summer in 2009. Granted, it wasn't much snow, but for snow to fall, the air has to be cold, and my idea of a summer day, even late summer, is not a high in the 30s. It's been said that August is the only month of the year when Pike's Peak receives no snow. Take it from me, it's true.

Hail is also a real hazard around here. It happens several times a year during the warmer months, is a factor in the area's notoriously high car insurance rates, and wreaks havoc on roofing all over the place. A bit further east on the open plains, they've been known to get baseball-size hailstones. The storms are intense!  I was greeted by a powerful hailstorm when I arrived here in 1993. I remember sitting in my car wondering if it would ever pass over, that's how strong and long-lasting it was.

Pikes Peak and the Front Range may be your idea of a breathtaking panorama, but the area is shorted of an hour or more of sunshine per day by the peak, which particularly annoys me during the daylight savings months. A typical day during July or August in Colorado Springs goes like this: Beautiful, sun-filled morning, comfortable temperature, gets hot in mid-day, clouds over by 3 PM, then thunder (with or without precipitation), but if there is a storm, usually the clouds will break over Pike's Peak so that you get a final glimpse of the sun just before it is obscured by the peak, around 7:30 PM, as if it's sticking its tongue out

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