Winter Weather — C & Se Park County, Colorado

2020-09-07 to 2020-09-09 · C & Se Park County, Colorado

Event narrative

Storm totals included: 12 inches near Alma, with 8 inches near Fairplay and Lake George.

Wider weather episode

A strong upper level low brought an end to record heat through the first week of September and provided Denver with one of its earliest measurable snowfalls on record. By the evening of September 7th, a series of cold fronts progressed southward from Wyoming into Colorado, and dropped the temperature down into the low 30s by early morning of the 8th. Snow developed across the Front Range mountains and foothills, while a mix of rain and snow developed along the I-25 corridor. On the 8th, accumulating snow was mostly confined to the higher elevations, eventually spreading across the plains during the late afternoon and evening period. Light snow spread across the far eastern plains overnight, and tapered off the morning the 9th. In the Front Range Front Range mountains, foothills, and South Park storm totals ranged from 4 to 12 inches. The early season snow brought a welcome but relatively brief period of relief for the ongoing wildfires. Along the urban corridor, storm totals ranged from 3 to 6 inches mainly west of Interstate 25 and over the Palmer Divide south and southeast of Denver. The heavy and wet snow downed some fully leaved trees and snapped large tree limbs in Boulder and Golden, and caused electrical outages. Boulder was hardest hit with 6500 outages.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 920987. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.