Winter Storm — C & E Adams & Arapahoe Counties, Colorado

2024-11-05 to 2024-11-06 · C & E Adams & Arapahoe Counties, Colorado

Event narrative

Snowfall reports were sparse for this area east of Denver. An estimated 8 to 14 inches of snow fell November 5th through the morning of November 7th. At 5 miles ENE of Byers 9.8 inches fell, 10.8 miles SSW Bennett 10.8 inches fell, and 5 miles north of Strasburg 10 inches of snow fell. Interstate 70 was shut down at times through the 9th, especially for eastbound traffic. Also Highway 36 was closed at times. Travel became very difficult to impossible when heavy snow returned on the 8th.

After the lull in snowfall on the 7th, an additional 12 to 24 inches of snow fell late on the 7th through the 9th. This brought total snowfall amounts to 20 to 36 inches, with the heaviest snowfall occurring over eastern Arapahoe County where 31.0 inches of snow fell 6.1 miles SW of Deer Trail. At 5 miles ENE of Byers storm total snowfall of 22 inches was reported.

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 1220524. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.