Saturday, January 22nd - River Forks Inn Bar Now Open... The historic River Forks Inn on Hwy 34 in Drake is once again serving alcoholic beverages at it's bar... The establishment obtained their liquor license this week and are currently 75% stocked... The restaurant will be serving dinners until 9PM, with a DJ providing entertainment afterwards... There is no cover charge and residents of the Drake, Glen Haven, and Storm Mountain areas receive 10% off the price of their dinners...

Thursday, January 20th - Warm Weather Continues... Area residents were once again today treated to what would be considered a beautiful day most any time of the year... Temperatures rose into the upper 60's with clear skies, warm sun, and only a light breeze... This streak of warm weather is expected to continue thru the weekend and into early next week... With the mild nights ahead, residents are encouraged to take a few minutes to go out and enjoy our evening skies... The moon is getting bright and casting moon-shadows, with halo's seen recently from high clouds in the area... There is a chance of "Northern Lights" tonight also as a result of another enormous "X-7 Class" eruption around midnight on Wednesday... This eruption produced the strongest radiation storm recorded since October of 1989... "Comet Machholz" appears to be fading somewhat and is currently in the glare of the waxing moon... An interesting "S" curve was seen recently in the ion tail possibly due to disturbances in the solar wind caused by the recent eruptions of sunspot 720... Saturn is visible in the "east after sunset" and a great object for backyard telescopes... Look for it's golden glow near the twin stars Castor and Pollux around 8pm local time... This is a great opportunity to comfortably view our Winter Constellations too... 

Photo taken January 17th showing unusual "S" curvature to ion tail of Comet Machholz

Wednesday, January 19th - 2004 Tax Notice Mailings Underway... Larimer County Treasurer, Myrna Rodenberger, said today that the mailing of the 2004 tax notices is underway... State Assessed, Mobile Home, and Personal Property Tax Notices were mailed out Monday... Real Property Tax Notices will be in the mail this week... If you purchased real estate in the year 2004, the ownership records may not have been transferred to reflect new ownership... Updates are taking place daily, and when those updates are received, new tax statements will be generated and mailed... Nearly 139,000 tax notices have been mailed, which will include 126,844 real property; 5757 personal property; 6160 mobile home and 214 state assessed tax bills.... Ms. Rodenberger also said payment of these taxes will produce over $266 million for taxing authorities throughout Larimer County... These tax statements are for the taxable year 2004, and became due January 1, 2005... However, in accordance with Colorado State Statutes, the taxpayer has the option of paying the full amount of taxes in a single payment no later than Friday, April 29^th, or payment can be made in two equal installments... The first installment to be paid no later than last day of February, with the second installment to be paid no later than June 15^th... Taxpayers using the half payment option are reminded to file their 2nd half payment coupon in a convenient place for June remittance, as a second half notice will not be mailed... Please mail payments to Larimer County Treasurer, P.O. Box 2336, Fort Collins, CO 80522... To ensure proper credit, please reference your schedule number on your check.

Tuesday, January 18th - Aurora Alert Continues Tonight... The best possibility to view the "Northern Lights" so far this year will be tonight after sunset... A powerful "coronal mass ejection" (CME) is heading for Earth and extreme geomagnetic storms are possible when it arrives on Jan. 18th or 19th... Sky watchers everywhere, should be alert for auroras!!! The image below is a "SOHO" "coronagraph image" of the CME... It was hurled into space by an "X3-class" explosion above sunspot 720 on Jan. 17th (0950 GMT)... The many speckles are caused by solar protons (accelerated to light speed by the blast) hitting "SOHO's" digital camera... Auroras have been reported the past two nights as far south as Maryland and Kentucky... Clouds have hampered viewing in our area... Images of the recent Auroras can be seen in the, "January Aurora Gallery", at "Spaceweather.com" and also at the, "Real Time Image Gallery", of the "Solar Terrestrial Dispatch"...

SOHO image showing yesterday's CME producing eruption

Monday, January 17th - 2005 LFR Basic Wildland Firefighter Academy... This year's Wildland Firefighter Academy National Red Card Certification program is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, February 1st with classes each Tuesday for six weeks... The program will consist of six four-hour (6pm-10pm) classes which will focus on field techniques, equipment, communications, navigation, and other basic skills in fighting wildfires...  Whether or not you intend to sign up with Loveland Rural Fire as a volunteer wildland firefighter this course is very educational and time well spent... Individuals who took this class last year and wish to be re-certified must attend the February 8 class on Firefighter Safety and schedule your Pack Test... Those who would like to take this course for the first time this year, please respond ASAP if you plan to attend... Lt. Legits needs to know how many text books to prepare... For more information call: 970-590-1091 or email Kldebenham@direcway.com 

Sunday, January 16th - Aurora Alert Tonight... Yesteday, huge sunspot 720 erupted hurling two Coronal Mass Ejections towards Earth... The M8-Class and X2-Class ejections are expected to arrive here on the evening of January 16th-17th possibly sparking strong Auroras, or Northern Lights... Sky watchers should look towards the northern horizon after sunset tonight... More information on these ejections and possible auroral display can be found at: www.spaceweather.com 

Huge sunspot 720 as seen through the clouds on Friday

Photo Of The Week... A beautiful winter scene unfolded early Friday morning along the shores of Lake Loveland... This photo captured the light snow coating a sculpture of children walking a log, adding a special touch to this marvelous piece of artwork... You will find this art along the south shore of Lake Loveland, just off of Eisenhower at South Shore Park...

Snow coats sculpture along shore of Lake Loveland on January 14th

News posts from previous weeks are located in our "News Archive" which can be found by clicking the button below:

Storm Mountain Net