Whimsey...I'm scared Colorado might crack...

[230RN]

...from thermal stress.  24 Fahrenheit now (4 AM) to 64 Fahrenheit at 1 this afternoon.

That's 40 degrees in 9 hours for this big an area.

I think I hear it creaking already.

https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=39.7836&lon=-105.1675&unit=0&lg=english&FcstType=graphical

[K Frame]

'I think I hear it creaking already.'

That's your knees.

[WLJ]

Swings like that haven't cracked Kentucky yet and we get them all the time, some even bigger. You'll be fine

[lee n. field]

'I think I hear it creaking already.'

That's your knees.

 

[lee n. field]

"sheee-it, that ain't nothin'"

A handful of years ago, sometime in January, we went from minus 30 something (record low) to over freezing, from one day to the next.

[Brad Johnson]

40-50 degree swings are an everyday occurrence here, especially in Fall and Spring. Monday we had a morning low of 42 and an afternoon high of 91.

Brad

[230RN]

Swings like that haven't cracked Kentucky yet and we get them all the time, some even bigger. You'll be fine

But Colorado's thicker than Kentucky and it's harder for the temps to equalize.  Hence the stress.

Wiki:
"Black Mountain
Mountain in Kentucky, United States
Black Mountain is the highest mountain peak in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, United States, with a summit elevation of 4,145 feet above mean sea level and a top-to-bottom height of over 2,500 feet."

From 5,000 feet to almost 15,000 feet, Colorado's about 10,000 feet thick top to bottom.  Lots harder to anneal for stress relief.

Whoops! What was that?  Dayam, my knees don't creak so that one must have been Colorado.

[Brad Johnson]

I'm scared Colorado might crack...

Colorado already has a bunch of cracks. What's one more?

Brad

[230RN]

Colorado already has a bunch of cracks. What's one more?

Brad

Tell me about it.  I moved to Boulder in early  60s, moved out of town in mid 70s trying to escape the snot nosed supercilious liberals, moved to near Golden, started to realize that I had been "chased out of town" enough, stayed there.  With the State now all blue I'm surrounded by cracks.

[Brad Johnson]

I was talking about the geologic kind but that works, too.

Brad

[Bogie]

So, that's the location of the Obama library, right?
 
<not thread merge...>

[grampster]

So long 230.  I'm not signing this so you can't carry a grudge.

[230RN]

Well, CO's been weakened by heavy stresses a couple of times.  One of the biggest supervolcanos occurred in the middle of the State (see La Garita Caldera) and evidence of the big Yucatan meteor strike (See Chicxulub Crater) still exists in the form of the resulting "Iridium Layer" actually visible on the surface just a little east of Denver.

And, and, the Continental Divide runs right through the middle.  That ought to tell you something.  If the Continent ever divided again, it would be right through Colorado.

Whoops, there's another creak... no, that one was more of a groan. 

I've been hearing a lot of groans since I started this thread.

[Hawkmoon]

And, and, the Continental Divide runs right through the middle.  That ought to tell you something.  If the Continent ever divided again, it would be right through Colorado.

Except that the continental divide doesn't represent the junction of two tectonic plates. It represents the line generally separating where rivers drain toward the Pacific from where rivers drain to the east.

[230RN]

Except that the continental divide doesn't represent the junction of two tectonic plates. It represents the line generally separating where rivers drain toward the Pacific from where rivers drain to the east.

Of course.  Flight of fancy.  Jokester's License.  In fact, I had occasion (1968?) to straddle the line representing the Continental Divide and with Wife1 playing lookout, I peed on both sides of The Line.  So you could say I peed in both the Atlantic  and the Pacific at the same time.  I am sure I'm not the only one who has done it.

Long ago.  I don't remember a big sign indicating it, but just a plate fixed to a rock.  I guess this might be what it looks like nowadays.

   

So I guess by now, at least one or two molecules of Terry's Metabolites have finally reached both oceans.

Yayyyyy!

Incidentally, one of the ears on Rabbit Ears Pass broke down a couple of years ago, but I don't think they renamed it "Rabbit Ear Pass."

   

I looked at that collapse as an example of why planets end up being round instead of cubical.

Terry, 230RN

[French G.]

Trade you. Ice storm with a side of thunderstorm.  Was hard-headed, 4 hours and several directions never made it more than ten miles from home . Stuck twice, moved about twenty trees,  avoided a few more than that. Next time I sleep in.

[230RN]

Trade you. Ice storm with a side of thunderstorm.  Was hard-headed, 4 hours and several directions never made it more than ten miles from home . Stuck twice, moved about twenty trees,  avoided a few more than that. Next time I sleep in.

I'm with  you on that one.  In my invulnerable prime and a little post-invulnerable-prime, I felt I could beat my bare chest while facing a 20 degree 50mph wind.

Nowadays, recently having turned 86yo, 27 calm degrees is my lower limit. Any Wind Chill temp below that and I start dipping into my 72 hour backup supply instead of going out shopping.

I did go out after two weeks of that recent really cold weather to start my car. The little rascal started right up so I went shopping, but that was "uncomfortable" to this old coot.  (And just because I like to brag about it, I was damned glad I'd quit smoking back in 2017.)

Terry, 230RN

REF (With frostbite times):
https://goodcalculators.com/wind-chill-calculator/

[JTHunter]

Well, Colorado's political climate cracks me up. 

[230RN]

Well, Colorado's political climate cracks me up. 

Drat!  You lit my fuse.

Well, Marshall McLuhan predicted in one of his books (which I have, buried in a closet somewhere) that Colorado would turn into California, and this was a long time ago.  I scoffed at that notion when I read it, but it is coming true.  I did not realize at the time of the effect of ongoing pressure to amplify urban areas' influence on State politics.

As an example, Broomfield was a center of Liberal thought similar to Boulder, and a great effort was made to make it into its own county, which was (IMHO) totally unnecessary, but it got rammed through, early 2000s or so,.

So now Broomfield, as its own county, has its own nice soft liberal seating / extra liberal power  in the State Legislature.

Watch it. Things like that can happen in your own State.  Find a comfortable Liberal area, pump up the citizenry to push for their own "badly needed" county, and watch your State turn blue.

So now, everybody's bitching about the densely-populated cities having too much of a liberal "gimme-gimme" effect on State politics.

Well, you let it happen!