I suppose it would be, and I take your point about it being a bigger shift than you commonly get. I've only been in Colorado three times, all briefly, and I did get a sense of the weather's changeability. Pretty interesting, and it made me realize I don't have much to complain about here.

Many places make the claim of "wait 5 minutes and the weather will change". Few experience the wide...and wild...swings we can go through.

Yes, I think you win in that department. One lucky thing about it, though, is that your snow rarely stays on the ground in Denver. Ours can stay for months, and it is so disgusting and dirty.

I know we like to talk about "Polar Vortexes", how early winter came this year, and how drastic the change was but for a little perspective, lookup the "Armistice Day Blizzard" back in 1940. At least we had warning.

Within a few hours it went from 60 degree temps to a raging blizzard with 16 to 27 inches of snow, winds of 50 mph, and temps dropping into the single digits overnight. Hunters taking shelter on islands in the Mississippi had their camps flooded by 5 foot waves (on a river !)

145 people died across several states.

It was that big sweeping mass of a storm that covered a large portion of our planet. It pushed a big system on us. Looked like a Jupiter storm/ eye on the nightly news.. How fare thee up North? Here in Southern Co, along the Arkansas valley, it's large patches of non melting snow coupled with otherworldly low temps in the AM.

My feelings on cold weather riding:





- Andy

We beat a record low temperature that had held for 111 years this morning, with a low of 20 F. Of course, that meant I had to ride, even though it was far from my coldest commute, which was about 15 F. I was warm and toasty, and probably overdressed a wee bit. Amazing how much heat your body can generate when cycling.

I don't have anywhere to ride today, at least for now. I just took the dogs* out for a walk. It's very cold and very windy. I am so grateful for my clothes.

* My grand-dog is staying with us for a week. I normally have only one dog.

54 Deg.F when I left the house, down to 51 by the time I got to the Metro station, back up to 54 when I de-trained in Los Angeles. Toasty compared to the weather for you cycle-cimmuters North and East!

Long sleeve base layer, jacket, cycling shorts with knee warmers, Woolie-Boolie socks with 6-6-1 sandals. Quite comfortable commute, actually.

Rick / OCRR

We're getting chinooked today. Those patches of snow will probably evaporate before nightfall.

It is, after all, more than 5 minutes later

12*F this morning. I ride in below-zero temps every year. My record is -25*F.

Below about -10, you absolutely need really serious face gear. I use a balaclava plus a neoprene face mask (buy them for motorcycle riders, but you have to open up the mouth area to get more air - motorcycle riders don't need that much air), plus a pair of goggles. You need to have NO exposed skin on your face.