Posted on 06/26/2019 2:00:33 AM PDT by Windflier
On summer's opening day, up to 20 inches of snow buried the high terrain of the Colorado Rockies, boosting the state's snowpack to extraordinary levels for the time of year.
The solstice flakes marked a continuation of a snowy stretch that began in January and February and lingered through spring. Even before the solstice snow, The Denver Post wrote, the state's snowpack was "in virtually every numerical sense . . . off the charts." At the time, the snowpack was 751 percent above normal.
Due to the new snow Friday into the weekend, the Natural Resources Conservation Service reported that the state's snowpack ballooned to 4,121 percent above normal as of Monday. This number is so high because ordinarily very little snow is left by late June, and cold temperatures late into the spring helped preserve what fell earlier.
After the weekend blanket of white, the scenes in the high country west of Denver resembled midwinter. Enough snow fell to close roads, while many ski areas reported accumulation, including Breckenridge, Vail, Beaver Creek, Arapahoe Basin and Steamboat Springs.
At Steamboat, snow stakes showed up to around 20 inches Saturday. CNN wrote that the last time this area witnessed snow this late in the season was June 17, 1928. It averages just 0.1 inches in June and normally sees its last day of snow around May 6.
At Arapahoe Basin, so much snow has fallen since the winter that it has stayed opened for skiing on weekends through the month. It declared Saturday a powder day after a fresh coating of two inches. The resort plans to open again next weekend and possibly over the July 4 weekend, its blog says.
(Excerpt) Read more at stamfordadvocate.com ...
neither. Despite the breathless reporting it’s not that rare. i have drove. the tough the mountains in a blizzard in late June and A. Basin has been open on July 4 before. You are talking about 11-14k feet of elevation. It has been a cool spring in Denver but that has happened before as well. Some ppl need a chill pill!
We have all been concerned about the runoff but colder temperatures in the mountains have kept the snow from melting so we hope to be able to avoid flooding, too.
Rising snowpacks usually produce more runoff as well. I hope this is true for the western side of the rockies. If so the Colorado river will be a beneficiary, and its declining water levels sur need all the water they can get.
All those carbon particles washed
from the atmosphere are now piled
high atop Colorados’ mountains.
Solar Minimum. The Sun is Going To Sleep.
Grand Solar Minimum + Anthropogenic Global Cooling. You are gonna need more then a snow shovel next winter.
Colorado.
Good thing too. More water for the flats plus fewer fires. Will be a very green summer. Hooray!
Hearty folk living in them there hills.
“I hope this is true for the western side of the Rockies. If so the Colorado river will be a beneficiary”
At Grand Junction the Colorado River is higher than it has been in seven years.
“At Grand Junction the Colorado River is higher than it has been in seven years.”
For down river conditions that’s a good sign.
I’ve been meaning to go by sportsman’s warehouse to see if they have anything on the current conditions at Lake Powell.
I need to buy a youth model 20 gauge pump shotgun for my daughter, so maybe today.
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