Winter Weather — Morgan County, Colorado

2024-11-08 to 2024-11-09 · Morgan County, Colorado

Event narrative

Snowfall of up to 4 inches fell across Morgan County. Most of the precipitation fell as rain, limiting the impacts as it never cooled much below 32F. The heaviest snowfall report was in Brush where estimated 4.5 inches of snow fell.

Wider weather episode

A slow moving and complex storm system affected Colorado from November 5th through November 9th. In some locations of east central and southeast Colorado, historic amounts of snow fell. Snow began to fall on the evening of November 5th, with periods of moderate to heavy snow then affecting the region through the early morning hours of November 9th.

There were several waves of heavier snowfall, the first wave impacting 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 heavy 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. 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.

This last round of heavy snow developed in the morning hours of the 8th, and continued through the early morning hours of the 9th. Additional accumulations during this period topped a foot of snow over the far southeast portions of Denver Metro through much of rural Arapahoe, eastern Douglas, and Elbert Counties. This round of snow was also very heavy and wet, and resulted in scattered power outages. Around 30,000 customers were without power in the Denver metro area on the morning of the 9th. Meanwhile, major interstates (I-70 east of Denver) and most highways remained closed in east central Colorado. It took days to open some rural roads.

Storm total snowfall amounts from 24 to 36 fell across the southern Foothills, Palmer Divide and across the east central plains. Local amounts exceeding 40 fell across portions of Elbert and northern Lincoln Counties, where this storm recorded the second largest snowfall totals in recorded history, second only to the early November, 1946 Snowstorm. Snowfall amounts over the Denver Metro area ranged from 12 to 24 with the highest amounts over the eastern and southern suburbs, but some melting occurred during this 90 hour storm event. Only a few inches of slushy wet snow fell farther north, including Longmont, Fort Collins, Greeley, Fort Morgan, and Sterling.

Governor Jared Polis declared a disaster emergency and activated members of the Colorado National Guard as several drivers became stranded on the Eastern Plains.

The Colorado Office of Emergency Management said crews have went on a total 22 search and rescue missions on the Eastern Plains, bringing stranded drivers to safety. Xcel Energy said there were approximately 17,600 customers without power on the morning of November 9th.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1220554. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.