I was just checking my records and so far this season we have received 28.4 inches of snow which surprisingly is close to our 11 year normal of 27.1 inches for September, October, and November. This corresponds to 2.74 inches of liquid precipitation which is 1.34 inches below the 11 year normal of 4.08 inches for September, October, and November. However, don’t forget that this average includes September 2013 when we had an incredible 8.93 inches of rain. This skews my 11 year average a bit.
2020 is the driest year in my 11 years of records. We currently have had only 16.17 inches of liquid preciptation for 2020. This is 6.04 inches below our annual (calendar year) normal of 22.21 inches. We are 1.33 inches behind 2018 – our second driest year which had only 17.50 inches of rainfall.
So, it is dry here in Nederland. We’ve been talking about that for a while. Fortunately, we have some snow on the ground. There was a house fire just across from us last night. If it were not for the snowpack and light winds, that fire could have quickly grow out of control in our tinder dry forests.
Tonight:
Colder air will continue to filter into the Colorado Front Range Mountains and Foothills. We had a period of intense snow showers early in the evening which left a quick 1.5 inches of new, fluffy snow. There could be a few more flurries as the night wears on. Otherwise, it will be chilly with lows dropping back to near 5 F by morning.
Wednesday:
Clouds and morning snow showers will give way to afternoon sunshine. It will continue to be cold, though, with highs only around 20 F.
Thursday, Friday, and the Weekend:
Dry weather will prevail Thursday through the end of the week. Highs on Thursday will moderate into the mid 30s F with highs in the 40-45 F range the rest of the week. Temperatures on Thursday morning will be near 10 F with lows in the low 20s F for the rest of the week.
Overall, not a bad forecast, although the ski resorts would love to get some natural snow.
Did you know that we are now at the 107 year anniversary of Denver’s all time largest snowfall. From December 1-5, 1913 a crippling 45.7 inches of snow fell in Denver. It is hard to tell how much snow fell in the Foothills – records are sparse from that time. Check out this article to learn more about this storm!