Annals of Meteorology

What’s Next, Locusts?

By Richard Martin, 2-27-06

It wasn't exactly a downpour of frogs, but Coloradoans, and particularly Boulderites, were subjected to some mighty odd meteorological phenomena over the last few days.

First was the brown snow. Caused by a wind storm in northern Arizona, which kicked up dust that was carried east and fell with the snow overnight, the off-colored snow, described as everything from "dusty" to "chocolate brown" was prevalent at several ski resorts over the last week.

Then there was the mudflow in Boulder Creek.

Attributed to everything from the brown snowfall to global warming to a Communist plot to infiltrate our precious bodily fluids, the mud, which turned usually pristine Boulder Creek in to a swirling, orangey-cocoa colored mess, turned out to have a more prosaic origin: the 100-year-old Barker Pipeline, which connects Barker Reservoir to the city's Betasso Water Treatment Plant west of town, had frozen and flatulated thousands of gallons of thick, brown sediment into the creek.

Officials with Boulder's Public Works Department assured the public there would be no long-term environmental damage. Still, in a winter when Boulder has gotten almost no snow, and on a day when temperatures are reaching 25 degrees above average, it all makes me kind of nervous.

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