COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A fast-moving system could bring another round of snow to the Pikes Peak region this week to top off a massive late-winter storm that halted travel across the state.
The weekend’s storm pounded areas of Colorado, dumping more than 2 feet of snow in the Denver metro area and upward of 3 feet in areas of Teller County.
It was the fourth-largest storm in Denver’s 140-year recorded weather history, according to the National Weather Service in Boulder. About 27 inches of snow fell at Denver International Airport between Saturday and Sunday and 23 inches in Teller County, according to the National Weather Service.
Colorado Springs saw a range in snowfall — with 6 inches reported near the Peterson Air Force Base and nearly 1½ feet reported near the Air Force Academy. Still, the storm made travel challenging, especially for commuters headed north. The storm closed major highways, delayed opening for government offices and shut down Denver International Airport.
Monday also marked the first snow day in a year for some of Colorado’s largest school districts including Colorado Springs School District 11.
Interstate 25, which was shut down Sunday between Castle Rock and Colorado Springs due to white-out conditions, remained closed until midmorning. Highway 83 also remained closed for several hours Monday as plow crews worked to clear the ice-bound roads.
Many cars were stranded as conditions worsened along major highways and Colorado State Patrol worked to tow the cars throughout the day as roads became more safe. The number of motorists left stranded wasn’t available Monday.
“We can certainly say despite asking folks to stay off the roadways, we did handle hundreds of calls statewide each day dealing with crashes, slide offs, stuck and stranded motorists, and more,” said Trooper Joshua Lewis with State Patrol.
The Teller County Sheriff’s Office responded to many vehicles that slid off the roadways and got stuck, said spokesman Lt. Wes Walter. There were no serious rescue situations reported, he said, and the county did not request assistance from the National Guard.
The county owns a fleet of snowmobiles that are dispatched as needed during severe weather, Walter said. They were not activated during the weekend storm, he added.
Ute Pass and Highway 24 West were kept open, although “it was slow going,” Walter said. A steady stream of cars thought to be skiers returning from the slopes crawled along the highway on Sunday, he said.
Hundreds of flights out of Denver were canceled or delayed as crews worked to treat the runways for ice and snow. All of the airport’s runways were closed until 2 p.m. Some flights at Colorado Springs were canceled Monday.
As snow began to melt and skies cleared along the Front Range, meteorologists shifted their focus to the incoming storm, which is likely to bring more snow Tuesday.
Between 2 to 4 inches of snow is possible in the Pikes Peak region as rain turns to snow Tuesday night and continues through Wednesday morning, said Kyle Mozley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pueblo.
More snow is possible along the Palmer Divide, but likely won’t exceed five inches based on current weather models, Mozley said. The biggest snow totals are expected in southern Colorado, near the New Mexico border, where between 10 inches to a foot of snow is possible, he said.
Though the next storm’s impact will be less severe than the weekend’s, Mozley warned of a slushy morning commute on Wednesday.
The past storm likely made a good dent in this year’s drought conditions, especially in the east where 2 to 3 inches of rain was recorded near Lamar, Mozley said.
Even so, the dry conditions depend on the months to come.
“If we keep continuing to get these storms to roll through, then it probably will alleviate some of that drought,” Mozley said. “But if it is just a one-and-done and it stays dry, the drought is going to persist.”
Russ Schumacher, the state’s climatologist, called the storm “very significant” for northern Colorado and the eastern plains in terms of moisture. The storm brought the wettest day in over 18 months to places like Kiowa County, Schumacher said. Snowpack got a large boost to the east of the Continental Divide, which he said will help recharge the soil moisture in the agricultural areas of eastern Colorado.
“So this will definitely make a difference with respect to our ongoing drought in those spots,” he said. “West of the Divide, though, there wasn’t nearly so much snow, and those are the areas that both have worse drought conditions and are where most of our water comes from, even for us east of the Divide.”
As far as what the summer months may look like, following a summer filled with wildfires that tore through the state, Schumacher said it’s still “too early to say.”
“The outlooks for the rest of spring and summer still point toward warm and dry conditions, but there’s always a lot of uncertainty with those so we’re just going to need to wait and see how the next few months play out …,” he said.
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