Stunning May snowstorm dumps more than 2 feet of snow in Colorado
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Snow is still falling in Colorado on May 6, where a late-season storm dumped more than two feet of snow on some areas.
Early in the morning of May 5, the National Weather Service put much of the interstate corridor from the Wyoming border to near Colorado Springs, including Fort Collins and Denver, under a winter storm warning. Schools and universities were closed, hundreds of flights into or out of Denver were delayed or canceled and tens of thousands of customers in the state have lost power amid the storm.
The snow picked up in intensity with more than a foot accumulating near the entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park by the early afternoon on May 5, forecasters said. Some mountainous areas were struck by "thunder snow" as rain turned to snow across the urban corridor, including outside the weather service's outpost in Boulder.
By midnight local time, nearly six inches of snow had accumulated outside the Boulder office with the precipitation expected to intensify overnight across the Denver metro area. The weather service said the final round of heavy snow moved through the area just ahead of the morning rush hour on May 6, though light snow remained possible throughout the afternoon.
How much snow has fallen? Map shows where snow is piling up
By 9 a.m. ET, more than 27 inches had accumulated in Estes Park, Colorado, the highest level of snowfall in the area. Parts of Boulder saw more than 11 inches, while the Denver airport got 5.5 inches.
The storm hasn't broken the record for the largest two-day May snowfall in Denver, which was in 1978, when 12.4 inches fell between May 5 and 6, according to the weather service. But forecasters say it is the most snow the area has seen since a storm in March piled up 8.5 inches in Denver.
Quick melting was expected as the heavier showers subside, though travel will still be impacted throughout the day in the southern mountains, including the I-70 corridor, the weather service said. A widespread freeze is likely Wednesday night, including in parts of the Palmer Divide where snow was still falling around 10:30 a.m. ET.
Late season snow in Colorado's mountains is not unusual. The latest snow has fallen in Denver was June 2, 1951, according to the weather service.
And the region could "sorely use" precipitation of any kind, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Weather Prediction Center said in an earlier forecast, though experts have said this storm won't be enough to make up for the lack of snowfall so far this season.
"Depending on where you are in Colorado, this is one of the worst snow seasons on record with some locations actually recording their least amount of snow for the season," drought expert Brian Fuchs of the National Drought Mitigation Center previously told USA TODAY. Less snow now means less water will be available for plants, animals, humans and agriculture later on this summer, he added, which could mean an increase in water restrictions.
Contributing: Doyle Rice, USA TODAY; Miles Blumhardt, Sarah Kyle, Kelly Lyell and Rebecca Powell, Fort Collins Coloradoan
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Stunning May storm dumps more than 2 feet of snow in Colorado.
Reporting by N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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Thumbnail courtesy of Jennifer Broome | Storyful.