Photos from the Air Force Academy Graduation Air Show

May 29, 2010 By

One of the iconic events every year in Colorado Springs is the Thunderbirds air show during the Air Force Academy graduation. This year we watched the show from a location near the TCA campus on Voyager.  We had a great view, but without as much traffic as there typically is down near Interquest.

If you live somewhere other than the Springs, you might want to check out the 2010 Thunderbirds Schedule to see if they’ll be somewhere near you this year.

And now the real reason for this post… here are some pictures!

[jeremy]

Late April snowstorm hits Colorado Springs

April 23, 2010 By

Thinking of doing some gardening this weekend?  Might have to wait for the snow to melt first… Colorado Springs got hit with a nice spring snow storm today, closing many school districts.

We’ve gotten several inches so far and it keeps on coming down…  At least it means you can delay watering the lawn for another week!

And to think there were tornados in the area last night!

[carrie]

Heed the “watch for falling rock” signs

March 8, 2010 By

What are the odds that rocks actually fall on you when you’re driving through the Colorado mountains and see dozens of “watch for falling rock” signs? Probably pretty slim; however, after the major rockslide on Interstate 70 this morning (near Glenwood Canyon), it will probably be awhile before you scoff at those warnings again:


Photo credit: Colorado DOT. More rockslide pics via TwitPic

Thanks to local tweeter QualityFrog for the link to the pics.

Think the Manitou Incline is hard? So does Apolo Ohno.

February 17, 2010 By

Image from markus42 on Flickr

Olympic short track skating gold medalist Apolo Anton Ohno on the Manitou Incline:

You can’t necessarily run the entire way up. I would love to watch someone do that. It’s just these railroad ties that are staked into the ground all the way up. It’s a very, very mean workout. No matter how far you go, whether you walk it or run it, it’s going to hurt bad. But for a speed skater it’s worth it. It’s all lower body. I used to bike there twice a week from the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, run it, and ride back. It was a staple of my training for many years.  – via Runner’s World

Mean, indeed.  If an Olympic athlete thinks it’s a grueling lower-body workout, you should feel pretty good if you’ve been able to do the Incline yourself.  (I haven’t.)

Thanks to our friend Melissa for the link!

[carrie]

Colorado Springs weather extremes in 2009

January 25, 2010 By

The National Weather Service just released the annual report on weather patterns for Colorado.  Some interesting data, whether you’re a new resident to Colorado Springs or a longtime resident.

Image from KevinDooley on Flickr

The hottest day in 2009 was July 24th – it hit 93º that day. The coldest day is in the not-too-distant past: we hit -15º on December 9th.  The average high temperature was 61.9º, while the average low was 35.1º.

Colorado Springs received 15.72 inches of precipitation last year, just over 1.5 inches less than average. I found it interesting that the record maximum precipitation was 27.58 inches in 1999, while the record minimum was a mere 6.07 inches way back in 1939. Let’s hope we don’t come anywhere near setting a record minimum again!

In 1999, we received 22.7 inches of snow – 12.7 of those inches were after July 1st.

Colorado Springs often touts “300 days of sunshine per year”, but that all depends on how you decide what “sunshine” is. In general, you could say Colorado Springs is primarily sunshine, but that all depends on where in the city you live, and whether or not you’d consider a day with clear blue skies from sunrise to 3PM and then clouds from 3 PM to 6 PM a “sunshiney” day.

Regardless, the National Weather Services says we had 261 “fair” days, 71 “partly cloudy” days, and just “33″ cloudy days in 2009. Whether or not you’d consider that 300 days of actual sunshine, you’d be hard-pressed to argue that it’s anything less than a great clmate!

There’s more information on 2009 weather averages and records on the National Weather Service website.

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