Snowstorm leaves Denver's highest snow total from any storm so far this season
The type of storm most common in March or April brought more than a half foot of heavy snow to most of Colorado's Front Range. Denver's official snowfall total at Denver International Airport Thursday morning is 7.1 inches, which is the highest total from any storm so far this season.
Because the storm originated on the West Coast instead of Canada like most storms in the winter months, it contained air that was much warmer than normal. That is why the precipitation started as rain on Wednesday afternoon and when it finally changed to snow, it was heavy and wet as temperatures hovered near freezing.
Denver officially received 0.60" of liquid on Wednesday which is the most ever measured for the date going back to 1872. The city doubled the old record from 12/28/1932 which is a testament to how unusual it is to get so much rain in December.
Once the rain changed to snow Wednesday evening, it fell at rate of up to 2 inches per hour especially in the foothills of Jefferson and Boulder. The result was more than foot of snow for communities like Morrison, Conifer, Evergreen, Genesee, and Coal Creek Canyon.
Elsewhere snow amounts were generally between 4 and 8 inches but most of Weld County as well as the Fort Collins area received less.
Because the snow contained so much moisture and was therefore so heavy, it caused many tree limbs to snap and even brought down entire trees in some areas. The situation would have been much worse if trees were leafed out. Fortunately that is not the case in late December.
The entire state of Colorado will get a break from snow Thursday night and Friday morning. Then snow will return to the mountains by late Friday and will continue through most of the holiday weekend. Snow should stay away from the Denver, Boulder, and Fort Collins areas until late Sunday. A First Alert Weather Day has already been declared for enough snow to shovel again Sunday night and Monday.
