“The snowstorms we typically have in October aren't really associated with air that is this cold,” said Becky Bolinger with the Colorado Climate Center. “This is more consistent with the cold air we might expect to see in December or January. So I think those two combined really make it pretty rare, not completely unprecedented.”
What has been most interesting to Bolinger about the weather in October is how cold it has gotten since September. Last month was the hottest September on record, with temperatures in the 100s.
“It pretty much feels like we went from a summer month to a winter month."
Teens Under Stress
Teens in America are struggling. It's especially true in Colorado, where rates of mental health issues, substance abuse and suicide are rising. We're investigating the causes — and possible fixes in a months-long special report. Dozens of teens have shared intimate stories about the pressures they face, and explained what they’d like to see change.
VA Doesn’t Cover Service Dogs To Help With PTSD
Air Force veteran Ken Morrow was never deployed, but his time in the service left him with injuries anyway. For years, he was subjected to loud explosions and he suffered a severe head injury on the job. He lives with a traumatic brain injury as well as hearing and mobility problems.
Today, Morrow relies almost exclusively on Toby, his black German shepherd, to cope with those lingering conditions, as well as long-standing anger issues. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will help veterans obtain and care for service dogs to help with certain physical conditions, like blindness. But, the agency has stopped short of providing significant resources for service dogs to help with psychological symptoms.
Creepy Moment At The Museum
Happy (belated) Halloween! So, the Denverite folks wanted to do something super on-brand to celebrate. It happened in a behind-the-scenes tour of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science’s vertebrate zoology lab and collections. The Halloween tie-in: we were looking at lots of dead animals. Spooky, right?
Meet Whittier's Handball Community
The beat-up old court in Denver's Whittier neighborhood, owned by the local Salvation Army, isn’t much to look at. But it often attracts dozens of Latino families daily, with even larger crowds on weekends. Guys hunch over card games while they wait to play. They bring their kids and spouses, and sometimes throw cookouts and play Norteño music on boomboxes. They're taking part in one of the oldest games in the world, with roots going back to ancient Egypt.
Will Delta County Libraries Wither?
Some years, the number of cows outpaces the number of people in Delta County. Its 30,000 humans are spread between one small city and a handful of tiny towns that dot an irrigated desert. Almost none have a movie theater, bowling alley or stoplight available nearby.
But nearly all of them have a library, started by residents, some more than a century ago. Generations later, voters in the same communities are deciding whether to fund those libraries with a tax increase or effectively scale them back.
The Report On The Deadly Firestone Home Blast Is Out
For two and a half years, Erin Martinez waited for the federal government to finish its investigation into what caused the home explosion that killed her husband and brother. The National Transportation and Safety Board released that report, and Martinez is disappointed.
“There are no recommendations on how we can keep these things from happening again,” she said.
