If you’re in the Southeast, your attention has probably been fixed on Hurricane (and now Tropical Depression) Nate moving through the region. But if you are traveling somewhere else this week like I am, you may have noticed that the first big winter storm of the year is set to hit Denver and the Rockies today into tomorrow, dropping several inches of new snow into the area (just in time for me to drive through).  You might wonder, how often does this happen?  Fortunately, the Weather Channel already has an answer to that, at https://weather.com/science/weather-explainers/news/2017-10-08-tropical-storm-hurricane-landfall-winter-storm-same-time?cm_ven=T_WX_BD_100817_2. (Hint: it’s not as rare as you think).

Tree branches sag under the weight of the snow in Haywood County. (Image by Emmet Williams, from the NCDC’s Climatological Data Annual Summary for 1992)