mayjawintastawm

Yup, high here was 74 yesterday, low this AM was 24. More good moisture- was already starting to get pretty dry with the wind over the weekend. Soon we'll have to start the warm season thread.

Surprised by another 4.2 inches this morning- now 75.5" on the season and 34 inches for March!

Yup, fairly typical for many years to have 3/1 as the midway point. I had 41.5" pre-blizzard thanks to an early start, then 28.3" since, guessing we'll get about another 5-10" more to finish with a respectable 75-80" on the season. Average for me is about 55".

4 inches in 4 hours here, now a lull. Not bad.

so you're saying that were it not for the dust, Denver Metro might have had like 30"+? Wow. Me and my back think we're glad we didn't. You know, that would explain the <24" reports for like 10 miles each side of 25 but higher east as well as west. There's usually an east-west gradient that goes in one direction or the other. We have friends in SE Aurora that didn't measure but swore they got close to 30.

I got 22" using the 6 hour board clearing method, and I'm nestled right in the I25-I225-E470 nook, near APA. Highlands Ranch, 8 miles southwest, got 19.5" (not sure how measured). Both are in the light purple, so it tracks. Pretty sure DIA was the only one >27" among reports in the immediate Metro area within the 470/NW parkway "beltway". The real interesting thing is when I went for a walk today in Cherry Creek State Park, I expected to find that the snow had drifted as it usually does, with wind from the N or NE. But actually it looks from the drifts like the wind was 340-350 most of yesterday, which is not usually conducive to high snow amounts here.

21.2" for an almost-final. 35 hours since it began. Still snowing lightly off and on. Wish I didn't have a day full of Zoom meetings with East Coast people tomorrow!

Just came in from shoveling. 19.7” total. Running out of places to put it. I actually hope we’re about done! Also, several posters on weather5280 noted a reddish color in the first few inches of the storm from last night, and I did too- probably the snow that fell 12-8 AM today. There have been big dust storms in west Texas the past couple days. Could this have been ingested into the snow that made it all the way up and around to here?

A lot of those SNOTEL sites are pretty isolated, accessible only by dirt roads if by any road. Cool though.

Verifying for sure here. 7.7" new for a total of 11.5" and that was at 10:30. Shoveled, and probably have 2" more since then. Absolutely dumping, and windy. Thinking APA might be close to blizzard criteria, have to check. What a change!! Edit: If gusts >35 mph count, APA has had blizzard criteria for 5 straight hours. So, yes. Edit 2: Well, there we are. Blizzard warning for the I-25 corridor.

3.8" storm total here. Whoop-de-doo- looking for a reason the dry slot won't just keep rotating over us. All models all still have a foot plus to go- we'll see. This is worse than being a Red Sox fan in the 1990s.

But of course! Only time I've ever had to time measurements according to GMT. Geez. First 6-hr measurement=1.8 inches, though probably another inch since then. Steady accumulation now. Roads are officially slick in DTC.

?Parker looks like about 20" snow with about 2.0 QPF, about where it was 18 hours ago- so not bad really.

Starting a new topic for this storm. I don't think we've done that in a very long time. Snow/rain/UP started here at 10:42, 35 F.

I'm going to start a nowcast thread for this storm. Started with UP here at 10:42.

Meanwhile, temps in the Metro area are kind of concerning, 35-37 all night and holding. Doesn't seem like there is anything around to advect cold air anytime soon.

Right. Wentz, if you're still around Monday when roads should be clearer, and feel like exploring , take a drive north or south of Estes. You'll likely find snow that is 6-12 inches or more deeper than right in town. Peak to Peak (hwy 7) should be cleared pretty quickly, and goes up in elevation over 8000" within a few miles. You could even drive south to Boulder Canyon (119) and loop back toward the airport through Boulder.

Moved from Central MA 10+ years ago, born and raised there. Funny that annual snowfall here is exactly the same as the neighborhood I came from (though the water equivalent is less than half). Differences are mainly that there is just so much weather of consequence in the NE due to more water, and the winter storms there (perhaps 8- 10 a year in a good year, some hit, some miss) all follow the same 2-3 patterns, which have great entertainment value. The suspense is always there. Here, we get lots of little storms, but only 1 or at most 2 good Four Corners lows a year. Drought and fires tend to turn one off from following the wx. The one exciting thing here that is different for sure is supercell thunderstorms- but they appear and vanish so quickly that "following" them is hard. Most significant hailstorms at any given point are impossible to predict more than a few hours in advance, if that. Anyway, just my $.02. Gettin' ready for a mayjawintastawm, ayuh.

Hypothesis: The half dozen or so of us who post regularly are 1) tired 2) at the store 3) looking out the window and checking the temp every 30 seconds. And we've had almost a week of GFS stupidity, so there's that. And the No Accumulation Model with its mega-dry slot is making everyone mad.

If you've never been in a Plains blizzard, it's an adventure, and though I like adventures, this is one I'd skip. Think driving in a snowglobe. No points of reference. You can't tell if you're going 10 mph or 100 mph. IF I-80 is open, which it likely won't be, that'll be the scene on Sunday if current forecasts hold.

Though I live in Centennial, and the GFS is saying 12" at my house, but 25" perhaps 2 miles west. What a gradient Must be me. Plenty of places to stay for reasonably cheap for all the DTC business travelers. Lots of new motels on Arapahoe Rd that look pretty good.

Honestly, with an upslope/elevation dependent storm like this the difference between 25" (Boulder, low-end) and 40" (Nederland, for example) may well be only 10-15 miles as the crow flies. The issue is that that 10 miles may lead you to 0 places to stay that are open. If you want to stay IN the heaviest snow rather than NEAR it, Estes Park or Black Hawk (as others have mentioned) might be your best bet. Great chance of 3 feet of snow in either place. I lived in the Lehigh Valley for a while back in the 90s, and it's kind of like Allentown (places to stay, good but not great snow) and Palmerton (more snow but not really anyplace to stay). Hope that helps.

Thanks for the site! If things go according to plan, "back to Broomfield Sunday evening" might be dicey. Would think about a plan B. OTOH, systems often clear out earlier than forecast, so it might be OK.

Where do you get your numbers? I can't get anything yet.

Now might be a good time to take a holistic, Zen-like approach (is that possible here?) and let the atmosphere do what it wants to do for a while before locking anything in. Spring Front Range storms: 1) Quite uncommonly are mostly rain 2) Almost always overperform in the foothills; Boulder County usually wins 3) Seldom leave anybody out completely. Namaste.