DENVER — A powerful snowstorm swept through parts of Colorado and Wyoming over the weekend, dumping as much as three feet of snow on some areas and leaving as many as 25,000 people without power as of Monday morning.
The storm brought heavy, wet snow and downed trees and power lines. More than 20,000 customers near Greeley, Colo., about 50 miles north of Denver, were without power as of early Monday morning, according to Xcel Energy. More than 3,000 people around Fort Collins, about 700 near Loveland and about 600 people in the Denver suburbs were also without power.
By early Monday morning, more than 27 inches of snow had fallen at Denver International Airport, making it the fourth biggest snowstorm in Denver weather history dating back to 1881, the National Weather Service said.
Fort Collins had received about 24 inches of snow by late Sunday, and the Aspens Springs area had received about 40 inches, the service said. Cheyenne in southern Wyoming had 36 inches of snow.


The storm had already broken records by Sunday afternoon when more than 19 inches had fallen at Denver International Airport, making it the city’s largest snowstorm since 2016, said Kylie Bearse, a meteorologist at 9News in Denver.
Forecasters expected the snow to continue through early Monday morning. Select areas around the state would remain under a winter storm warning until 6 a.m., including Fort Morgan and Briggsdale. Snow in those areas was to gradually diminish toward dawn, the service said. In Vail and Aspen, where a winter storm warning was also in effect until 6 a.m., periods of light snow and gusty winds were expected overnight with additional snow accumulations of up to two inches.


Colorado had been bracing for this snowstorm: Gov. Jared Polis activated the Colorado National Guard, grocery store shelves were left bare by Friday as shoppers prepared for the storm and Denver International Airport canceled nearly 750 flights on Saturday and more than 1,200 flights on Sunday.
The airport said on Twitter on Sunday that it had closed all of its runways “due to blowing snow and poor visibility.”


Eldora Mountain, a ski area on the Front Range that is about 20 miles west of Boulder, had gotten 11 inches of snow since Saturday afternoon, and was expecting up to 23 inches in additional snow on Sunday, according to Open Snow, which provides forecasts for ski resorts.
Though Colorado is known for its late-season snowfall — March is Denver’s snowiest month on average — “it’s definitely a rare event,” Ms. Bearse said, “to get this much snow.”
Much of the snow was falling on Colorado’s Front Range and Foothills, leaving its more mountainous High Country without such intense snowfall because of an “upslope event” that brought wind from the east, she said.
Parts of major roadways, like Interstate 80 in Wyoming and Interstate 70 between Denver and Silverthorne, Colo., near many of the state’s ski areas, were closed overnight on Saturday, and sections of Interstate 70 and Interstate 25 were closed again on Sunday afternoon.
The police department in Aurora, Colo., a Denver suburb, said on Twitter that its SWAT team rescued people who had gotten stranded on the roads.
The Colorado State Patrol said on Twitter that snowplows were stuck or overturned on the roads.


Denver’s transportation authority said on Twitter that, because of blizzard conditions, all of its bus and rail operations were experiencing significant delays. “All travel is discouraged at this time unless it is critical,” it said.


Amanda Nebelsick, a Fort Collins resident, lost power for about seven hours on Sunday morning.
Her neighbors hosted a pancake breakfast for those who were unable to cook on Sunday, she said, and her normal view of the mountains was blocked by heavy snowfall.
“Now that the power’s back on, we’ll just hunker down and enjoy the afternoon,” she said.


The avalanche danger on the Front Range was high on Sunday, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center said, warning that “intense snowfall will cause large and destructive avalanches.”
Snow had been forecast to start falling early Saturday in Denver, but higher temperatures caused the snow to fall instead as a drizzle, Ms. Bearse said. The storm also moved into the area more slowly than anticipated, leaving many Denverites — including Ms. Bearse — underwhelmed by the snowfall totals on Saturday.
“I was frustrated seeing that storm come in so slowly,” she said, adding, “I barely slept last night.”
More snowstorms are likely in the state through March and April, with snow expected this week and next week in Denver.
The storm is set to move on from Colorado and Wyoming on Monday morning, bringing a mix of rain and snow to the Midwest on Monday, Ms. Bearse said. It is expected to bring rain to the East Coast and potentially snow to parts of New England on Tuesday.

Source: New York Times

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