Wet April - Warm First Week of May

In my blog "Time to Talk Rain" I talked a little about the soggy April we had this year. This was good news, as without it we were facing severe drought conditions. Here are some of the numbers from the NWS:
3.22 inches of precip (1.29 inches above) normal.
7.4 inches of snow (the airport picked up less than most of us in the mid-month storm, 9.1 is average).
We have received 38.1 inches of snow this season, which is a whopping 22.3 inches below our normal 60.4 inches.

The first full week of May will start to feel a bit more summer-like... Monday and Tuesday there is a chance of afternoon showers, albeit a small chance, and then we should really clear things out and warm things up. By Saturday we could break 80 degrees for the first time this year.

--- New poll!

Powerful Spring Storm Winds Down

Well, let the melt begin! And it will in a big way tomorrow. After several days of snow and rain the storm is showing signs of letting up. Rain and snow showers will likely continue through the afternoon and into the evening, but they will more isolated in nature. By tomorrow we should be pushing 50 degrees again... and into the 70s next week! (click to enlarge photos).

*Storm Totals*

This was an impressive storm both in terms of precipitation totals and snowfall totals. As far as precip is concerned, here in Denver we picked up anywhere between 2.1 and 3 inches of water. Some foothill locations were well over 4 inches. In one storm many of us logged more precip than we have all year.
Now for some of the snow totals (inches):
Pinecliffe (west of Boulder): 51
Black Hawk: 36
Eldorado Springs: 34
Evergreen: 29.6 (23 of these inches fell within 24 hours)
Castle Rock: 20
Parker: 16.3
Greenwood Village: 14
NW Denver: 10.5
Central Denver: 5.5

These totals are likely to change as updates come in throughout the day.

Things Pretty Much On Track...

Things seem to becoming together for a pretty decent wet Spring storm. The biggest questions that remain are concerning the temperatures. The National Weather Service has continued the Winter Storm Watch this morning for Denver, unwilling to commit to a because of the uncertainty of when it will be cold enough for snow. Castle Rock, and all foothill zones to our west have already been upgraded to a Winter Storm Warning as temperature confidence is higher in these zones.

With models forecasting somewhere between 1.5 and 3 inches of precipitation between tonight and Sunday we can expect at the very least some much needed moisture. The sooner it changes over to snow, the more accumulation we can expect. There is generally about 1 foot of snow per 1 inch of precip - so you can see how significant this storm could be. Will we get three feet if the models predicting 3 inches of precip are correct? ---doubt it. This is because more than likely we will see several hours at minimum of rain before it all changes to snow, and because the ground is so warm that much of the snow that falls is likely to melt!

With the NWS forecasting 10-24 inches of snow for Denver I would expect a winter storm warning to be issued at some point today. They do warn, and I will as well, that some places will remain a rain/snow mix longer.......................... greatly changing total snow accumulations!

Not a Bad Forecast

Looks like things are going to settle down for awhile.

Snow showers are in the area this evening as expected. They should remain scattered and light with little if any accumulation anticipated.

After tonight we will start to warm things up and clear things out. Tuesday and Wednesday temperatures should be in the middle to upper 60s before the next little system rolls through Wednesday night. At this point there is only a slight chance of rain or snow associated with this system...

After a cooler day Thursday we should warm things back up again into the weekend - with the chance of another little system Saturday night. This one also looks rather weak, but remains too far out to be sure of anything.