Possible Move To Colorado

I agree. We have lived in Az for 12 years and the summer's have not been fun. We have been so ready for a change and then this job offer came along.
I'm kinda wishing we could have moved before winter but, oh well. Hubby and I both grew up in Idaho and loved it so, hopefully we'll adjust quickly to the cold temps.
It's time to go and buy a coat and boots. LOL

And some sweaters!

I'm a fan of wool sweaters. Those big, bulky, nylon-covered things are not nearly as nice.

I am a big fan of fleece! Soft and warm and easy to launder. But wool sweaters are nice, too.

Fleece is my favorite too!

Fleece is nice. I find wool comfortable over a wider temperature range.

Fleece can get too hot. Wool breathes better.

The sheep know what they are doing. :)

^_^

I dont think that you will really need a heavy coat, maybe once or twice during the winter. Most of the time you can get by with wearing fleece and/or a sweater. But I do recommend sunscreen and sunglasses, it is sunny here :).

Don't forget mittens SunnyAZ. Mittens are very important for making perfect snowballs.

So Lillyz, is it pretty mild in Pueblo then? We get very cold here and often quite a bit of snow, but I don't know much about Pueblo. (An assortment of winter coats seem necessary here... one light one for mild days, one medium heavy one for typical winter days, and one very heavy duty one for waaaay cold and snowy days). And, as we have to walk 5 dogs 4 times a day, we use every one of that assortment of coats, LOL!

Brenda

I don't own an actual winter coat and haven't in decades. I have a wind-proof shell parka (uninsulated) that serves fine 90% of the time and also a thin down vest that can be worn alone (sunny but chilly days) or under my shell for the few really cold, wet days.

Really, DenverJude? You get some big snow up there, don't you? We have friends in Arvada... maybe you are just way hardier than me! 16 years in AZ tends to thin the blood...

We are now enjoying "2 sweater" weather here in Southern AZ...You need a sweater to wear to work...then it warms up so much that you forget to wear your sweater home that day...so tomorrow you need the 2nd sweater! Eventually you have to remember to bring them home from work. LOL Jo

I like the layered approach too. A thin nylon shell for when it is windy or rainy or super cold. Other than that it is either a light wool sweater or a medium wool sweater or, when playing soccer or similar, a cotton sweatshirt. Gloves and hats help too, and wool socks.

I also notice that conditioning yourself to the cold helps. I don't like to go out for an all-day outing in the mountains without going out for a shorter time or two first. Doing something in the yard for a couple hours on a nice nippy day in late November or early December makes a difference. The people who only let themselves out in the cold for 5 minutes at most never adapt and suffer more overall.

We get snow off & on (usually big dumps sandwiched between warm dry weather). It doesn't often get much below 30 degrees except once in a great while. And it generally warms up into the 40s or 50s or more within a day or two of a snowstorm. My down vest over long sleeves with a wind/rain shell over it keeps me plenty warm on the rare super cold days. And I'm not likely to be out at 4 am when the night time lows in the teens or negative digits happen on the few nights of the year it happens. On Thursday it was around 70, Friday afternoon through Saturday afternoon we got 8 or so inches of snow (it dumped the usual dry fluffy snow), the sun came out Sunday and by yesterday it was back up near 40 and today was in the 50s. All the snow has melted.

Huh! I thought Denver was much colder. See how much we learn on DG!

"May you live interesting times" is supposedly an old Chinese curse - and driving over Raton pass can get really interesting in the Winter Months. You and your hubby please be safe and careful SunnyAZ. Most storms seem to hit everywhere around us but skip over Pueblo, but we have made up for it this fall with several storms that have dropped more precipitation here than the surrounding area. Your Husband ran into one of them. Weather-wise, we have higher highs and drier dries than most of Colorado in both summer and winter. Although Pueblo is known for its hot summers, winter is still our longest season. I lived in North Dakota & winter there was very different from Colorado (I don't know how similar Idaho weather is to North Dakota). In North Dakota, it slowly got colder and colder and colder and we were able to adapt and get used to it - we ignored the thermometer and kept an eye on the wind and windchill. Colorado weather is so variable night to day, day to day, week to week; that cold nasty weather still manages to be an unpleasant surprise. When we left work Monday night (the day after the storm) at 9 PM, I wore a medium weight Parka, another coworker had a jacket, and another was in short shirt-sleeves. I might have been able to get by without the parka, but not without the driving gloves I keep in the pocket. To sum up, the dry cold of the Rockies feels better than the damp cold of the rest of the U.S., and the hot summers in Pueblo (similar to Grand Junction, bsavage) shouldn't bother someone from Arizona.

As we're talking about hot summers, I would mention that I was a bit surprised to find that I really need my a/c in the summer!

Do you? We don't have one and haven't even felt the need. Must be a little cooler here in the summer.

Yes, well our home is upstairs from the RV Park office, laundry, lodge room, showers. When they built the residence, they insulated the heck out of it (which is great for the winter!), but in the summer the hot air rises and it stays very warm in the house. Our summer temps can get into the 90's. So, I just have a window unit but that does the trick.

That's what counts!

We've got a whole house swamp cooler. It works great!

Swamp coolers work great in the west. But we don't even have that. Since our bedroom is on the second floor and we have good cross ventilation we stay pretty cool even on the hottest nights.

Yeah - unless it's miserably hot for days on end, we can cool the house down nicely before going to sleep and don't need to run it at night. It's a godsend during the day. We also often use it as a whole house fan to move air through the house (fan on, pump off).

We had swamp coolers (plus a/c) in our house in AZ, during spring and fall they worked great. I would think they would be just about perfect here in CO.

Yeah - it struggles on the few 100+ days we get. I can only imagine how hard it would have to work in AZ heat!

When I was a kid in New Orleans my father's office building had a swamp cooler with a cooling tower about as tall as the office building. I remember thinking how cool it was in his office building at the time, but looking back on it, how on earth did they ever get enough water to evaporate to cool anything in that damp climate? At home we didn't have anything but fans but when I was about 12 we got a room air conditioner. Sigh. That was the most wonderful invention ever.
Now in the South, everyone has air conditioning and they seek to make their houses as cold as Alaska in Winter. I guess southerners all have had lots of traumatic experiences with heat and want as much cold as they can get when they can get it.
Though the plants love the South, I am quite happy in the Rockies -- with occasional trips down South to quench my homesickness.

We moved here in 2000. My realtor said that one Evaporative/Swamp Cooler used to do it. But then house sizes, the relative humidity, and peoples cooling expectations have all gone up. Now it takes a minimum of two big Swampers. My realtor recommended central air, and we got central air. With my allergies and my husbands medications (he feels too hot), we keep the windows closed and the AC running more than most people. Since then, various neighbors around us have had to re-roof, and decided to change from roof-mounted swampers to cental air at the same time. They all visited our house first to check out our central air, and they all didn't like it - it felt too cold and too dry - but in the end they all got it. I guess they decided they didn't need to keep their house as cold as we keep ours, and they could open windows and/or run ceiling fans between times.
On the bright side, we don't run the furnace much - we usually turn it off if the sun is shining, even on cold days.

sorry for the late reply, Ive been busy with preparing for Thanksgiving. Brenda, yes it seems like the weather is milder here in Pueblo. At least during the winter. Ive lived here since Sept of 2000. we have had a drought and it seems like not too much snow and rain. I lived about 35 miles north of Denver before that. It seems like we got alot more snow there than here in Pueblo. The winter nights here are colder, I guess because Pueblo is in a valley.

Thanks for sharing the info, Lilly. I know Nancy will appreciate any insight on Pueblo and surrounding areas.

Brenda

Hi Nancy, I'm wondering how the move is going?? Hope all is well...

Brenda

Me too! Hope you are getting all snuggled in to your new home for the holidays ^_^

If I remember right Brenda the movers were here last Tuesday, so hopefully she is getting settled in up there as we speak...

The move has been made. We arrived last Saturday morn. We are exhausted and still have a gazzilion boxes to unpack.
Animals did great and are beginning to get aquainted with their new aurroundings.

Yeah - glad you made it safely!

Enjoy Christmas in your new home, hopefully with a little snow!!

Thank you.....snow in the forcast today.

Glad you're getting settled in and the animals are, too! Though I'm sure it's a bit crazy right now, I do hope you can find time to enjoy the holiday. And it only seems right that your first Christmas in Colorado is a white one (hopefully!).

Welcome to CO SunnyAZ and fam ^_^ Ya what Brenda said.