Blizzard — Sedgwick County, Colorado

2019-11-26 · Sedgwick County, Colorado

Event narrative

Whiteout conditions due to blowing and drifting snow resulted multiple road closures, as well as the closure of schools, state and federal buildings.

Wider weather episode

A powerful winter storm brought very heavy snowfall to the Front Range Mountains, Foothills, I-25 corridor and northeast plains. Heavy snow developed in and near the Front Range Foothills of Larimer and Boulder counties, then spread south and east across the rest of the region. All schools were closed on the 25th and 26th across the entire area, including all the major universities and colleges across northeast and north central Colorado. Federal, state, city, and county offices were closed on the 25th. I-70 west of Denver was closed due to a rock slide. I-76 and I-70 northeast and east of Denver were closed for 10 and 7 hours respectively. Other east/west highways including US 34 and US 36, were closed due to blowing and drifting snow. A total of 500 flights were canceled at Denver International Airport.

In the foothills of Larimer County, Buckhorn Mountain received top honors with a storm total of 40.5 inches. Other reports in Larimer County included: 35.5 inches near Glen Haven; 33 inches near Drake; 32 inches, 11 miles southeast of Estes Park and 4 miles east-northeast of Red Feather Lakes. Boulder and Fort Collins reported 22.1 and 17 inches in less than 24 hours respectively; which become the second highest snowfall for those cities in the month of November. At Denver International Airport, the official snowfall measurement was 9.5 inches. Across the rest of the Front Range Foothills, storm totals ranged from 12 to 30 inches. Storm totals along the I-25 corridor ranged from 9 to 18 inches. The eastern plains picked anywhere from 4 to 13 inches of snowfall.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 865262. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.