Thick Rain on May Day

Temperatures from low 30s to low 40s.

Happy May Day! Back in the day, the Soviets would be parading their military might near the Kremlin and the world worried about such things as the Cold War. Nowadays, the biggest worry around here was the weather. We'd had beautiful sunny weather the last few days but the weather guessers had called for sporadic rain/snow showers today and they were proven mostly right.

It was just overcast as I rode to work in the morning. Roads were dry as I arrived at work and there was barely any rain drops coming down. This changed during the day and for a while it even snowed pretty good, nice fat snowflakes.

Still, it being Spring in Colorado and the temperatures comfortably above freezing, the snow only collected on the grassy areas. I did go out to my motorcycle during lunch to retrieve my overpants waterproof liner as I expected to be riding home in the rain.

I left close to 1530hrs and it was snowing lightly, the snow would melt immediately upon hitting the pavement so I was not worried. Heck, I even saw patches of "steam" coming off the warm roadways.

There was some ice accumulation on the windshield and on my helmet's visor but nothing untoward. There were a couple of times I used my gloved hand to wipe away some of the melting ice that would not flow freely off my visor, but that's about the extent of the problem.

You can see its just wet roads with snow only on the grassy areas

The photo above shows the wet road conditions, the snow flakes at this point were very tiny and the camera really did not capture them well. I had been in heavy traffic on Colfax Avenue when the flakes were at their biggest so no chance for pictures then.

Here's a couple of pictures of Maria, safe in the garage after riding home in the thick rain. You can make out the ice that built up on the windshield, already melting as the windshield itself is misty from the condensation caused by the rising heat from the engine.


All in all, not bad riding conditions, just like riding in the rain in fact. Take it easy on the corners, start your braking earlier and keep braking motions smooth and no problem. I do need to pick up one of those rubber squeegee things for my gloves so I can do a better job of wiping the visor while on the move though.

The waterproof liners for my jacket and overpants did their job and I got home completely dry. I did a quick wipe down of Maria and once again we'll be ready for the commute into work tomorrow morning. As I write this, snow remains on the grassy areas but the roads are already bone dry!

Note: One casualty for today, my cheapo thermometer from autozone, got wet in the snow/rain and died.