Precip Totals Broken on November 23
(posted by Keno at 125 am on November 24, 2025)

While this new snow season got off to the slowest start ever on record for any snow season, just a week later we have broken the daily snowfall record for the date (November 23) and also shattered the daily precipitation record for the date, too.

1.22" of melted down snow collected in the old rain gauge, destroying the old daily record of 0.23", set back in 2007. As it is, normal precipitation for November is only 0.66". This is also now only the third time more than a inch of precipitation has been seen on a single day in November, and the third highest daily total ever for the month, with the all time record being 1.92", set on November 24, 2013.

Also broken for this date was the daily snowfall total, which was 4.2", also set in 2007, after we received 8.1" of very wet snow, unlike the normal dry, fluffy snow we see around here most of the time.

Latest First Measurable Snow for any Snow Season seen

(posted by Keno at 412 am on November 16, 2025, updated on November 17 at 11:42 am)

The latest first measurable snow in the Crestone/Baca for a new snow season (and the latest first day of measurable snow ever seen in the Crestone Baca since records have been kept) was reach today, November 17, when 0.1 of an inch was recorded in snow pellets at 1125 am. This broke the old record set on November 15, 2010. 

Note: We had already seen the first snowfall of the new 2025-26 season when a trace of snow fell back on October 24. But of course, a trace is just that and not measurable snow, which is what this other, more important record is all about.

Seasonal Snow Spotters are always needed and wanted!
(posted by Keno on October 4 at 827 am)
 
I'm always looking for new volunteer weather spotters, especially snow spotters, for our area for this new snow season.

What is needed to be a snow spotter? Just a ruler - or a yard stick for when it snows a lot, while a rain gauge, a snow board (no, not the kind you ski on, but the original white snow board used by the NWS to measure snow on) and a snow rule would be even better (but only a few of our spotters have them). A home weather station is real cool to have too, especially to report temperatures on record cold nights! But for being a snow spotter alone, only a everyday ruler is needed to be one!

Places where we need new spotters the most? Do understand: All locations in our entire area are important locations (!), so even if we have a spotter in one area already, any new spotters are still welcome to join our team! But, where do we need new spotters the most for this new season? Well, we are down to just one spotter in the Grants, so we could use 2 more, since the Grants cover a wide open area. Our lone spotter there is on the western side by Willow Creek. We also need at least one new spotter in Chalet 2, it may be a small area, but it's the one spot that sees the most different snow totals from other areas in our town, and usually sees the most snow per storm, but then again, not always, sometimes it sees the least, too. So we all miss not having a spotter there anymore! We've always have needed a spotter in Casita Park, it's the only spot on the local map where we never have had one! But I hope each year we'll get one and I'm still hoping!.... Will the 2025-26 snow season see our first one? I also would love to have a new spotter 15 miles away in Moffat, as my grandson Cooper, no longer lives out there. While Moffat sees the least snow in our small town's area, knowing what they get out that way is so very important for locals here in the Crestone/Baca who - as we all know, must pass thru Moffat on our way out of town heading north or south on highway 17. So knowing snow totals out that in the valley before traveling, is important indeed to us in the foothills, especially since CDOT removed the live cams we used to have out that way and we all relied on and miss seeing.
 
In Chalet 1, besides myself, we have 2 solid spotters, and sometimes a third, and all 3 of them do a great job (as all our spotters do!). Last year we had 2 spotters in or around the town of Crestone and I believe both of them will return, and again, 2 very important spotters who supplied us with great reports! The one spot in Crestone where we never have had a spotter is around or in the area of, the western side of town, and we could sure use one over there! We have one excellent spotter off T Road in the Baca Townhouses, sure hope he's be back for this season. We never have had any spotter in Chalet 3 (!), it might be only that one long block, but it's still an important area, too and I'd love to see somebody there join our team for this season. I also have an on and off spotter in the Two Trees area, which is of course a good bridge area between the Chalets and Grants, so a second spotter there would be helpful. Then, one of our former spotters from the Grants, who moved well north of here deep in the woods, yet I can't recall now exactly where she is at.... But, it's a great location and I hope she returns again this season, too! BTW, to all my current spotters, I haven't forgotten to get ahold of you in emails yet, like I do at the start of each new season, but I got in a new snow measuring video you should enjoy watching, which I'll be sending to you soon.

Now, and again, even in all of the places I noted above where we do have spotters - more new reporters are always wanted and are always welcomed to join us! So to anybody who wants to join us - anywhere in our area, please email me at keno@fairpoint.net if you would like to join our Crestone-Baca Spotter Team and I can tell you a bit more on how easy it is to join our local team in doing this fun community service! All I need to know on my end in your email is: Your name, where in town you are located - and at what elevation you are at. Do note that your exact address is not needed, just your location, and since some spotters don't wish to be named online (in our snow report), I won't do that unless you tell me you don't mind being named. But yes, all locals are welcome to join us in reporting snowfall for our greater area! So please do so this snow season in reporting snow totals if you feel like joining us! Thanks!
 
Keno

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Note: The following next 2 statements are totally non-weather statements and only the third time in 23 years that I've had to write and post such a local statement on this page.

Preamble to what was written below about our POA Land Use Manger and the problems not being addressed by him
by Keno

August 19, 2025 at 405 am

First, what’s written down below will not be removed until either Ross Gary, or the POA, does the right thing and takes action to end the 2 problems noted a few days ago. However, the current link on the Weather page will be removed once the story has been read by enough locals, but what I wrote below will stay where it is until the threats noted, are removed by the POA. New update on Saturday, August 23 at 250 pm: Sometime between Thursday August 21 and today Saturday August 23, the coyote den was filled in! This is of course, wonderful news! Only thing is, I have no clue who filled in the hole. Nobody at the POA ever got ahole of me at anytime about this problem. A couple of my neighbors did, and both were 100% in agreement with my 2 concerns (as were others whom where in touch with me). One who was had suggested that (he or she), might fill in the hole themselves if it wasn't taken care of by this weekend by the POA (as noted here last week, it is illegal, by federal law, to destroy any wildlife habitat unless it is a danger to others [as this unstable hole was] and it could only be done by the landowner). But I received no phone messages from the POA informing me that they finally took care of this problem on Thursday (It was still there late Wednesday). Since I was rushed to the hospital on Thursday by my grandson and wasn't released until late in the day and we got back home after dark, I nor my 2 grandsons were here, so we had no way of knowing if the hole was filled in on that day or not. Friday was a recovery day for me and the grandsons were away most of the day. So it wasn't until early this afternoon that I saw the hole is now gone. If one of my neighbors did fill in the hole, well I would never say whom this person might be, I'm just happy it was taken care of and I thank whoever it was who took care of this possible hazard.

So, one problem is solved and I hope the second one will be taken care of asap.

Ross Gary, POA Land Use Manager
By Keno

August 14, 2025 at 1215 am

I’ve had it with people like POA Land Use Manager Ross Gary, who doesn’t care about the people who he makes his living off of with our way too high POA dues (aka extra property taxes we are forced to pay. After all, taxes are what the POA dues are!)! But before I go any further, I’m not stupid. I know we need people to run the Baca and they need to be paid – but only if they do their jobs! Ross isn’t doing his darn job!

But first, I’m sorry that I may lose my cool here. Most of you who know me, know I’m usually a cool-headed guy.

On the top, what you are looking at is an unstable, abandoned coyote den, and below that is a photo of 2 large water coverts that are located under our main road in the Baca to prevent flooding of the road. Well, you can’t see them in the photo since they have been 100% covered and clogged by harden dirt and debris for 4 full years now. Okay, 3 years, four years ago they were only half covered. So, do you see where I’m going with this now?

Let me talk about the coyote den first. Note, this part of my statement has now been removed since the work has finally been taken care of (see note in the preamble above about this). The following text has been edited a bit to what still applies.

So, please let me get back to the 2 now totally buried culverts that I started to talk about up above. Way too many years (6, maybe 7) have passed since they were last cleaned. I was told all the culverts under our main Baca road are like this, but I have no clue if this is true or not. What matters, is the very large and long dry creek that runs downhill and under our main Baca road at this point. The creek totally fills to its rim whenever we get very heavy rain. I’m talking heavier than normal heavy rain and lucky for us, we haven’t had such a storm in about 19 or 20 years in this end of town. We are now due for a 20-year flood to hit, and the 2 culverts are again, 100% clogged. I did call the county about this years ago and they told me it was the POA who handled this and yes, I have spoken to them, including Ross, many times. Yet nothing has been done to uncover and reopen the old curlverts! Just what are our yearly dues going to? Just what does the POA take care of that’s more important than keeping our roads safe? A car trying to get through moving flood waters on the road there, will easily be swept away, plus depending on how bad a flood takes place, the road could be torn apart! Who do you think pays for repairing this kind of damage?…. We do/will! But if the POA would keep these culverts cleaned regularly (as is suppose to be done), none of this will ever be an issue, unless maybe if a 100-year flood hits, perhaps. I don’t know if those 2 tunnels under the road are rated to carried such a flow of water, but my guess after seeing two 20-year floods hit this same very area in a 2-year span years ago, I don’t think the dry creek could hold that much water in it and we would be having a lot of other problems when such an event happens.

So anyway, please, give Ross a call at the POA landline number 719-257-4171 ASAP and let him know that the two culverts need to be cleared and reopened for the safely of the our community!

Okay. I apologize if anybody takes this wrong, but then again, as far as the 2 culverts goes, I do know the weather in the Baca better than Ross knows it, or anybody else in the Baca knows it. I am the local weatherman and also official reporter for the National Weather Service, after all; been doing this job here for almost two and a half decades now. I do love my community and all the good people who live here, and I know what I’m talking about when it comes to the local weather. When the next 20-year flood happens, will we be ready for it? Well, where these 2 culverts are located under the main road, one block south of the Baca Firehouse, our POA is totally failing us on stuff like this. If you live anywhere south of the firehouse, and most of you reading this do, you have to use this main road to get to and from your home. But, if said road is destoyed by a flood that shouldn't ever happen in the first place, you will be affected by this! So again, please give Ross a call and ask him if maybe he could do his job that WE pay him to do!

I thank you for reading this, now please, take action since as one single person, I can’t fight city hall alone, and that’s what the POA building where Ross works is, our city hall! I do believe that it’s well past time that we close down the POA and form a real true town of our own – that, or see if the locals in Crestone will take us in and let us join them as the one big town we already are (unofficially). Doing that would save us a lot of money both here in the Baca and in the town of Crestone, too, since if we had no choice but to start a new town on our own, Crestone would become deserted, since the Baca would then have to build a new downtown with new stores to serve our new town for itself to thive. Oh wait, I just remembered, some oldtimers in Crestone don't want us visiting downtown Crestone daily anymore, anyway. So maybe I should just stop this talk here and now, but I still believe forming a true town and putting an end to the POA would help out our area - big time!

I hope you all have a great day and now I’ll just go back to being your weatherman 7 days a week, 365 days a year (nope, I don’t get any days off doing this work, I even work it  when I'm away out of town). Yep, I'll just keep doing it, that is, until my time is up, which at my age should be sooner than later. Somebody needs to step up and be ready to take over this job from me when that time happens, as our isolated town needs a local weather person, yet nobody seems willing or wanting to do this kind of work, not 7 days a week anyway. Guess we need two locals to take over this job, that way the seven day reporting may not get in the way of things.

Keno

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Close out and Wrap-up on the 2024 - 2025 Snow Season
(posted by Keno on July 2 at 445 am)

As all folks who keep weather records know, and as most Crestonians also know - since I always remind you once a year of this, June 30 marks the last day of the snow season all over the globe. Looking back on our last season, well, you guessed it if you realized that once again, we saw well below average snowfall this past and now last season. For the 2024-25 snow season, we only received 40.6 inches of snow, yes, that all folks! Our yearly average, which is 62.6 inches, has been falling steadily for the last 20 years plus now - 100% thanks to man-made climate change.

In a nutshell, the snow total we saw this past snow season, is the sixth lowest snow season ever seen in our area and now for our all time Top 10 least snowless years (or if you prefer, "snow seasons"), 9 of the 10 least snowless years for our area have taken place since 2000, including the Top 9! Only the 1995-96 snow season, sitting in 10th place, took place in the last century. During the last 12 months, only twice, in November 2024 and last January, did we see above normal snowfall for the month.

That my friends, is very sad indeed, and even more terrible than many realize, as it isn't just here in the greater Crestone area where this out of control madness is happening, but this is taking place everywhere on our planet Earth. As the great Stevie Wonder once stated, "If we don't change, the world will soon be over".