Wild spring weather and Billings tornado

The rain continues here in Western Montana, it's been pretty impressive by our arid standards. The wet weather seems to be the topic of conversation everywhere you go. The natives are getting restless and want some consistent sunshine. Sure there have been a sprinkling of very nice days in there, pushing into the 80's but in general the valley has been unpredictable at best for the last 1.5 months.

I was curious as to how many days it has actually rained since May, so I took a look at the Missoula Rainfall totals on the NWS site


May - 15 days of 0.01" of precipitation. We received 1.6", compared to a normal average rainfall of 1.8"

June - It has rained 15 of the 20 days so far (days w/ more than 0.01"), damn that's wet. Totals for the month so far are 3.47", normal for the month of June is 1.8".

Yesterday in Missoula there was some very impressive weather, huge dark cells set up over the valley and dropped some huge rainfall in a short amount of time. Some hail fell, but nothing notable. However, over in Billings a tornado touched down, check out some footage of that.





Wind speeds from the tornado were estimated to range between 111 and 135 mph, National Weather Service meteorologist Keith Meier said. The last time Yellowstone County, which includes Billings, had that scale of a tornado was July 2, 1958, he said.

some more footage of Billings Fathers Day tornado >> http://mikeheard.wordpress.com/2010/06/20/fathers-day-tornado-hits-billings/

Missing Lolo Peak Skier found dead near peak

6/21 UPDATE : KPAX - Skier died in avalanche

A very sad and horrible reminder of how hostile a June ski outing in Montana can be. The details have not been disclosed. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of this young gentlemen.

The weather was quite bad the past few days. This morning from the Missoula Valley one could see the snowline had dropped down to nearly 5500 feet. The Stuart Peak snotel shows that 10" of wet heavy snow fell since Tuesday the 15th of June. Temperatures were around 33 degrees, which would have made for a very wet heavy snowfall.

"A 38-year-old skier who had been missing in the Lolo Peak area since Tuesday was found dead high in the backcountry on Friday morning. Missoula County Sheriff Mike McMeekin said the man's body was located by ground search crews near the top of Lolo Peak at 9:20 a.m., but had not yet been recovered.

"They located his skis first, and then found his body nearby," said McMeekin, who said the initial search crew did not speculate how the skier had died.

Search and rescue crews from Missoula County, together with a helicopter search crew from Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, spent all day Thursday searching for the man, who was first reported missing on Wednesday night after he failed to show up at work......"

Bug hatch of epic proportions

Good god, this is a lot of bugs. Rock Creek's salmonfly hatch should be right around the corner. But at this point Rock Creek is flowing almost twice the normal flows, we've had a weird run off this spring. I would guess if the rain lets up, it will start to drop pretty quick.

A mayfly hatch along the Mississippi River was caught on Doppler radar out of NWS La Crosse on Saturday, May 29, 2010. The radar view below shows an image at 9:13 p.m. CDT.

The bugs are showing up as bright pink, purple, and white colors along the Mississippi River mainly south of La Crosse, WI. After the bugs hatch off the water and river areas, they are caught in the south-southeast winds while airborne for about 10-20 minutes.

Doin' it Baja series

Doin' it Baja looks like it will a good series to follow if you like the desert and the beach. I recently finished watching Part 1 of 8 while sipping on a Michelada. I had drank the Miller Chills etc, but saw a recipe to make your own. Tasty. I squeezed a 1/2 lime into a pint glass, a few dashes of Worchester, couple drops of Tapitio, followed by a Pacifico..........magnifico

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/doin-it-baja/doin-it-baja-trailer

Lolo Pass winter time-lapse

I'm intrigued by a time-lapses, especially those that involve snow. I watched this 5 foot dump in Big Bear and this Sunshine Village time-lapse, then decided I might attempt my own.

The technique(s) I used were pretty rudimentary but fairly effective. Basically I visited the MT DOT site and downloaded an image from their Lolo Pass webcam whenever I could remember to do so. I left a huge gap during the month of March, which just so happened to coincide with a serious lack of snowfall. My original intent was to capture the massive snow berms (and their ebb/flow) that usually stack up on the side of the highway. This winter however, was not all that impressive. Nonetheless, it is interesting. Let me know what you think.

Lolo Pass time lapse 2009-10 winter from O.P.I. on Vimeo.

And if you want to see how the pros do it, check out Timescapes.org

Keep Missoula Beered

In a recent national competition by BeerCity USA, Missoula finished fifth, ahead of Denver, Boulder, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Milwaukee and many more--and tops in the Rocky Mountain West by far.

Firefighters battle brush fire in Sleeman Gulch

This hits a little too close to home. It's a bit early to be having things running to the ridgetop. The aspect (SW) that this burned on is usually tinder dry, so I guess its not surprising. Careful, careful..

More than 35 local firefighters battled a wildland fire that erupted Sunday afternoon in Sleeman Gulch, a piney drainage off Highway 12 west in Lolo.

The fire is believed to be the result of a homeowner's controlled burn that became unmanageable when afternoon winds arrived around 1:29 p.m

Some pictures and video from KPAX.

Any thoughts on the color change?

Anybody?

Changed the background to black, whad'ya think? I'm not sure if it's too hard to read, but seemed like it was time for some change.

Huge front flip to crash - NAKED

Wolf killed just north of Missoula

A buddy of mine happens to be neighbors with this guy, where a wolf was shot recently. Pretty close to town really. The incident occurred April 29 about a mile northeast of the Wye intersection of Interstate 90 and Highway 93.

From the missoulian site:
A homeowner killed a wolf that was threatening his dog northwest of Missoula last week, and state officials confirmed a new pack has moved into the Evaro Hill area.

"The wolves were within 6 feet of the dog - they were real close," said Allen Lake, whose yellow Labrador Belle was chained to her doghouse about 10 yards from the family home. "She wasn't backing down. She's a great watchdog, but that wouldn't have been good."

April photos

Some fun images taken with my new Sigma 10-20mm



I survived my 5th branding, although it wasn't without soreness. We ended up doing 185 head, all Charlet. This number was down from the usual ~250 head. But this year with the mild winter and good feed, the calves were big. I asked the ranch manager what he thought the weights were on a few calves, the bigger ones were 300-320lbs! If it wasn't for the real cowboys that come over from Mountain Sky Guest Ranch we would have got absolutely worked over. They've got technique.

Spring storms in Western Montana

Did winter just start? Huh, kinda weird we are getting our biggest dumps of the "season" and it's May 1st. The Stuart Peak SNOTEL shows they got 27" of snow and 4.4" of SWE (snow water equivalent). Translation = a lot of heavy snow. Ideal conditions around here are 12" of snow = 1" of SWE. But we need the moisture and the snow for the rivers this summer, otherwise we may not be fishing or floating. The local snowpack was at about 50% average before this last storm.

We've had some great weather, shorts and flipflops. Lettuce, onions, peas, and broccoli were planted well over a month ago and seem to be doing well. I had my doubts when T was putting things in the grounds mid-March. They seem to be holding up well to the frosts we've had since then.

I've got a new lens and should be putting up some more images soon. I'm loving the Sigma 10-20mm.

Iceland volcano shots

Some mind blowingly great shots over here on the Boston Globe's Big Picture site. The scale of Eyjafjallajokull is unreal.

This link is also well worth visiting National Geographic's International Photography Contest 2009

Sledding in the sunshine

A buddy and I got to take advantage of one of the seemingly "every other day(s)" of sunshine (alternating stormy/sunny) we've been getting lately. With blue skies and unseasonably warm temps in the forecast we got a noonish start and headed for Lolo Pass. The lot was loaded with snowmobile trailers, everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing....lets drink some beer and sled.

We brought all of our ski gear with the thought of finding some north facing stash of pow. But when the parking break came on and we looked at all the gear in the bed of the pickup. This is what we did without much hesitation:









We rode about 40 miles, exploring a few roads that neither had been on, looking for some ski possibilities next year. This one should have about 3 more feet on it next year and be rippable.



The snow was rated "hero" and we rallied pretty much wherever we wanted. Well, maybe not anywhere, but anywhere our skills and retro sleds would take us. Capped off the ride up to the Lolo Warming Hut and had few Double Haul's in the sun and called'er a day.

Western Montana avalanche deaths

As has been the case most of this winter, the snowpack in Montana continues to be a problem. There is a lot of variability of the snowpack structure and the surface hoar layer we've been dealing with all winter is still there. It looks like this weather pattern might keep adding some big loads to it, be careful.

Two young men have lost their lives this week to avalanches in Western Montana. These are terrible losses to the community, not to mention their families.

Glacier releases details on avalanche that killed backcountry snowboarder Wright

Video from the GNP avalanche site - http://www.greatfallstribune.com/assets/wmv/G115496842.WMV

Idaho snowmobiler dies in avalanche in mountains west of Superior

From the Missoula Avalanche center avy report: "The accident at Missoula Lake happened Saturday on a sunny day prior to the current storm cycle and involved the buried surface hoar layer we have been describing for several weeks. Lookout and Lolo Pass SNOTEL sites recorded about an inch to an 1.5 inches of SWE respectively and just a few inches of new snow. The weight of the water is what we are concerned about. As far as the area around Hoodoo, which is about 6 miles south of the accident site, 3.7 inches of SWE is HUGE."

Looking uphill from the debris field. Person in the center of the shot is standing where the snowmobile was found. TJ was found about 70 feet uphill from the sled against a small group of trees.

View of the crown. It is possible the fracture initiated from the small group of trees next to the snowmobile track at the top of the path. This is a 35 degree slope overall, steeper at the ridgeline.