Jan. 01, 2007 - 22:56 MST

CIRCULAR WEATHER

The old saw, "What goes around comes around," has somewhat of a corrolary with a twist. What goes around, goes on and on.

An article in The Rocky Mountain News this morning illustrates that aptly. Here, in part is some of the article:

'SEA OF WHITE' IN SOUTHEAST COLO.

Rescue, resupply missions under way in hardest hit areas

"Parts of southeast Colorado remained buried Sunday under a blanket of snowdrifts that completely obscured some state highways for up to 30 miles."

"This is really the tale of two snowstorms," Gov. Bill Owens said afer stepping off a Colorado Stae Patrol airplane that had flown for 2 1/2 hours over the affected areas."

"Owens explained that he wasn't referring to the blizzard that hit the Denver area right before Christmas. He meant the difference between the storm that left about 10 inches on the Front Range but muscled up into a blizzard that pummeled the Colorado's Plains with high winds and heavy snow."

"It's just a sea of white," Owens said."

"Robin Watrous used the same words to describe the ranch she and her husband work near Utleyville, about 3 miles from the Las Animas county line."

"We have a drift in the back pasture that's huge. It's about 15 feet tall," Watrous said. "And then we have bare ground right next to it."

"No additional deaths have been reported beyond the two people killed in storm-related traffic accidents in Kit Carson County."

"However, authorities were concerned about residents in the southeast corner of the state, which has been rendered virtually inaccessible by the storm."

"There have been people working on this around-the-clock," said George Epp, head of the state division of Emergency Management."

"Among developments Sunday:

## "Epp said his office has gotten reports of buildings that had collapsed in Lamar, LaJunta and Campo. He said the state is seeking a federal disaster declaration for those areas."

## "Volunteers with the civil Air Patrol flew 12 planes in a grid pattern at an altitude of about 1,000 feet over portions of southeastern Colorado, trying to determine whether people were stranded near any of the vehicles stuck in the snow."

## "About 80 members of the Colorado National Gueard were running rescue and resupply missions with about 30 Humvees and Susvees, a kind of snowcat with the ability to pull up to 12 people in a heated traler. They were able to rescue 44 people over the weekend."

## "About 658 people spent Saturday night in shelters."

## "Epp said rescue crews are also trying to help ranch families recover stranded livestock."

## "The Guard also was using two Black Hawk helicopters and a light Kowa helicopter equipped with infrared imaging equipment to look for any signs of heat from the ground that might indicate a stranded person," said Major Gen. Mason C. Whitney."

"Owens said he was struck by how in some parts of southern Colorado the prairies were brown and bare of snow. But then farther south, the snow piled up. "You have state highways where you can't even see where the road is for 20 to 30 miles," he said "There are many other country roads that are impassalbe and may well be for several days.>"

"On the ground in Springfield, Mayor Jay Suhler reported that it was hard for anyone to get anywhere. "We got about three feet of snow, plus it drifted some," Suhler said. "It's just locked us down. You dan't move."

"The storm piled on top of about 15 inches that blanketed Springfield in the last storm."

"It's good for the farmers, but it's bad for the livestock people," he observed. "They're going to lose a lot of cattle."

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Some of the residents down there reported that they were well stocked up on food and fuel.

It has long fascinated me how our country's weather mostly flows from west to east, and sometimes drawing up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico to add to whatever is eastbound. Jetstream wiggles and whirls it around, but often what goes around here -- goes on through Kansas and Nebraska and further east.

The storm has been severe enough that one could figure states to the east of us caught heck too.

Denver area is still milling around, snowbanks beside streets and some neighborhood streets are icy and unplowed, but for the most part we all are navigating nicely (carefully too) what melts during the day ices up when it cools down in the afternoon. Perhaps our trash will be picked up tomorrow, I hope, its been piling up her for more than a week now.

Guess the people running livestock are the ones who will suffer the most, I can imagine wading drifts trying to get out to take care of the cattle.

The name Unruh comes to my mind, perhaps my memory is faulty, but it seems to me that he was a young man who went for help when the school bus he was riding in got stranded in a prairie blizzard. Seems to me that he lost fingers or something similar from that ordeal. That was a long time ago, but people still get lost in blizzards, just a few feet from shelter.

I have driven in blowing snow over Loveland Pass here in Colorado, the world white in front of me, the road followed by guess and by God. It gets hairy out there in the countryside. Much worse than in the cities.

Weather does what it wants, when it wants to, in the amount it desires and the meterologists try to keep up with it, but it ain't easy by a durn sight.

Everybody suffers when there is CIRCULAR WEATHER . . . . . . . . . .

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