8:05 AM, Sunday, February 1, 2015
Last night’s cold front triggered some unexpectedly intense local bands of snow oriented northwest to southeast between 9PM and 3 AM. 4-7 inches of snow was common over a few hours in this 15-mile wide band from Lyons to Broomfield to the southeastern side of Denver. There are even some reports in the 8-10 inch range around Louisville, Broomfield, and central Denver.
The accumulations drop off quickly to in inch or less to the north in Longmont, to the east at DIA, to the south in Colorado Springs, and to the west in Nederland and the foothills west of Denver.
This kind of local convective snows obviously remain a big winter weather challenge for modeling and forecasting. Modeling has improved greatly over the years, but we aren’t there yet! And as usual, nature likes to place these small-area forecast busts over the most dense population, as the New York CIty office found out less than a week ago. 🙂
The snow is over and unseasonably mild weather Monday and Tuesday should make it disappear quickly. The next cold front and chance for snow arrives Wednesday morning.
