Winter Storm — Washington County, Colorado

2024-11-05 to 2024-11-06 · Washington County, Colorado

Event narrative

Snowfall amounts ranged from 5 inches across northern parts of the county to up to 12 inches over southern Washington County through the morning of November 7th. Due to the snow and blowing snow roads across southern Washington County were closed including Highway 36. Here are a few reports, Woodrow 16.8 miles SSE 11.6 inches, Anton 5.8 miles SE 10.0 inches, and Otis 5.7 W 5.5 inches. These snowfall reports are through 7AM November 7th. Snow then subsided for 12-18 before returning. Additional snowfall occurred on the 7th through the 9th was even heavier with additional snowfall of 16 to 24 inches across southern Washington County. For the entire 5 day event, an estimated 24 to 36 inches of snow fell across southern Washington County. At Woodrow 16.8 SSE 26.4 inches of snow was reported and at Anton 5.8 SE 30.0 inches of snow was reported. In addition to the snow, wind gusts of 30 to 40 mph on the 8th produced considerable blowing and drifting snow. Most roads across southern Washington County were closed for an extended time. If not closed, travel was very difficult to impossible due to the very heavy snowfall.

Wider weather episode

This is the first round of heavy snow from the five day event between November 5th through the 9th.

This first wave impacted the Southern Front Range Foothills, Palmer Divide, and adjacent plains through Lincoln and Washington Counties from the evening of the 5th through most of the 6th. Denver metro was on the northern edge of this first round, but temperatures were cold enough for some travel impacts on the morning of the 6th. After a brief lull on the evening of the 6th, another round of snow occurred across the Palmer Divide area and adjacent plains, including Lincoln County and the I-70 Corridor east of Denver in the early morning and daylight hours of November 7th. Interstate 70 and numerous highways in east central and southeast Colorado were closed for an extended period of time due to this prolonged period of heavy snow and blowing snow. Rural roads were blocked by the depth of the snow, as snow had already accumulated to nearly 2 feet deep. And the storm wasn't done yet, and in fact in many cases the heaviest snow was yet to fall with the final wave of the storm.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1220517. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.