The Aspen is blowing in the dust

Nice spring day, today, with a slightly apocalyptic forecast from the National Weather Service: “Today: Areas of blowing dust after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 54. Breezy, with a south southwest wind between 15 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph.” Yes, “areas of blowing dust.” It’s believable. Town and the mountains are still covered in the second thick layer of mud/dust that fell last week. Locals are still talking about the orange glowing sunset that night — dustset? — and how the sky was full of falling dust, dirt or mud and then how it quickly turned to snow. (You can see why Aspen was so popular in the ‘70s). It is expected to be relatively cool here through the week with the potential for several inches of snow on Thursday. Early next week, which marks the first day of summer vacation for Aspenites, looks like it will be spring-like across the Western Slope. Five more days for Ajax and Snowmass, counting today …