Big Parts Of Colorado Just Had Their Biggest Snowstorm In Almost A Quarter Century; Up To 28 Inches Reported

Apparently, no al fresco dining in Estes Park, Colorado
after 28 inches of snow fell yesterday and today. 
Photo via Facebook from Matt Levitt Weather

A late season snowstorm has hit large swaths of Wyoming and Colorado which sounds depressing for so late in the season.  

Instead, people are rejoicing, because as the snow melts, it will put the first real dent in the areas's drought in months. 

New snow was reported as deep as 26.1 inches way up in the high country of Boulder County. The city of Boulder itself got about 10 inches. Up in Estes Park in Larimer County, between 22 and 28 inches fell. 

All of Colorado is experiencing a drought. The snow is great news.  What had been expected to be an extraordinarily early start to the fire season might be postponed by a few weeks.  At least in the Front Range.

There was quite a bit of water in that snow. As of late this morning, Fort Collins reported 5.3 inches of snow with total melted precipitation of 1.75 inches. 

Denver itself reportedly got around three or four inches downtown, and around 4.5 to 5 inches around the rest of the city.  This means this was the second or third largest snowstorm of the "winter" even though it hit well into spring.  It was the biggest May snowstorm in Denver since 2003. 

The Denver snow, melted down, amounted to at least 1.1 inches of what is basically rainfall. 

 Final tallies aren't in yet, which is why I"m saying "at least." 

As the snow falls. the warm ground is making it melt from the bottom, and the water soaks into the soil. Once the snow stops, rising temperatures will make the remaining snow melt, which will continue to add moisture to the soil. Gradually, instead of running off like downpours would. So this is perfect. 

Northwestern Colorado is experiencing the worst drought conditions in the state. Many areas in western Colorado unfortunately mostly missed out on the precipitation. Grand Junction, Colorado only had 0.05 inches of precipitation. Gunnison had a little under a quarter inch. 

Which means the drought and potential fire problems are not at all over in Colorado. And most of the rest of the West. 

This isn't to say the storm caused no problems. It did. 

Trees has mostly leafed out in the Denver and Boulder areas thanks to a record warm winter and toasty early spring. Peonies were even blooming. The weight of the snow on leafed out trees caused many branches to snap. Some of them onto power lines. 

About 47,000 Colorado homes and businesses were without power as of early this afternoon. 

Coloradans face some garden misery tonight. The snow is ending, but a snow covered ground means it'll get very cold very fast tonight. A freeze warning is in effect for the entire area that had snow. 

The snowstorm in Colorado will soon be forgotten. The snow will melt and quickly!

 Forecasters expect the highs in the low 60s around Denver tomorrow, near 70 Friday through Sunday and rising to the low and mid 80s by early next week.

And the snowstorm isn't traveling anywhere else to hassle any springtime enthusiasts. It's just kind of dwindling away to nothing and drying up.