Winter Storm Update: Denver on track to see a half of a foot of snow

The Long-Awaited Snow is back 

Since December 1st, Denver has received 2.5" of snow at the Denver-Stapleton reporting station. At Denver Airport, 3.3" of snow has fallen. There's a discrepancy because the distance between those two reporting stations is great enough that some snow showers affect one and not the other.
For the sake of staying uniform with the rest of the data, you may see coming out, I'm going to be referencing Denver Airport as my official station for this information.

So, in the almost 62 days since December 1st, Denver has seen 3.3" of snow. That comes in as the fourth least amount of snow on record. The last time that is was this dry since December first was back in 1888!! So, needless to say, this has been an abnormal period for us here in Denver and the Front Range.

Since January first, there has been 0.5" of snow that has accumulated at DIA. Typically, in January, we receive about 6.6" of snow. I just don't see that happening this year. We do have a minor chance for snow before the month ends but it will provide no more than an inch of snow for us. As of this writing, we are currently holding the number 6 spot for the least snowy January on record. With the possibility of additional minor snow before the month's end, we could lose this spot but it doesn't take away from the fact that is has been a rather snowless month.

All-in-all, it hasn't snowed much in awhile BUT we are still running above our average in terms of season total. Thanks to the more than a foot of snow that fell in both October and November, we had a nice buffer that helped us stay above normal as we went into a period of dry conditions. Currently, Denver is sitting about 4 inches about the normal when talking about season total to date.

The snow and cold are here. 

After a weekend of record heat, we are below freezing and covered in snow. We woke this morning to gray and dreary conditions and light freezing drizzle just about everywhere in Denver. The Foothills got a rather heavy dosing of freezing drizzle with most trees and some roads coated in a glaze of ice.

That has since changed to snow for everyone. Snow will continue to be light until this afternoon when snowfall rates will increase to 1-2" per hour. That is enough to snarl traffic and caused a really big headache for the evening commute.

A Winter Weather Advisory Is In Place for the Denver Metro 

A winter weather advisory is in place through 6:00 am Tuesday morning. Snow will continue through the day and into the overnight hours. Snow will also continue for a good portion of Tuesday with the possibility of additional snow to fall and accumulate.

For Monday, snow will remain light through lunchtime, then due to some dynamics that will start to increase our snowfall rates, will we really start to see the snow pile up.

We are on track to receive 5-10 inches of snow for the Denver metro area. Those on the east side, like towards Aurora and Denver International Airport, will see the lower end of those amounts. Those towards downtown Denver and Centennial will see the higher end of those amounts. Snow will taper off through the overnight hours but it will remain to snow lightly through the day on Tuesday. Tuesday morning's commute looks equally as stressful as Monday evening's commute looks to be. The snow on Tuesday will taper off by the mid to late afternoon hours.

A Winter Storm Warning is in Place for Boulder and Golden 

A winter storm warning is in place for areas west of Denver. This is because snowfall amounts will be higher. 6 to 14 inches of snow is going to be possible in the Foothills and along areas of the Western Palmer Divide. This is due tot he upslope nature of this storm. During events like these, when upslope snow is occurring, these areas are almost always hit the hardest.

DO NOT TRAVEL 

It is advised to leave work early this afternoon. Sometime before 2 or 3 pm due to the expected heavy snow. As I said, Monday evening's commute is looking to be extremely tough. The National Weather Service said, "We want to emphasize the difficult travel conditions expected for this evening`s rush hour. The moderate to heavy snowfall rates along with the light glaze of ice on the roads after this morning`s freezing drizzle will combine to make extremely slick road conditions. We encourage people to travel slowly or to get home during the early to mid-afternoon when conditions won`t be as bad." This is strong wording and it should be noted. 

Travel will be difficult from Monday afternoon through Tuesday morning. Travel will remain tough through Wednesday morning due to additional snow and bitterly cold temperatures. We will see some sunshine return on Wednesday but temperatures will struggle to make it into the 30s so do not expect too much melting to occur on shaded or untreated roads. 

~Andy