Five years to the day after the Bomb Cyclone of 2019, another strong storm arrived in southern Colorado - and it certainly delivered. Most of us are measuring snow in feet rather than inches.
The storm formed near the Gulf of Alaska - where many of our winter storms come from - but had a few key differences.
- It benefited from a strong stream of moisture from the equatorial pacific - a classic El Niño pattern.
- Stronger than usual high pressure over the North Pole pushed colder arctic air south, and provided momentum to the developing low.
- Weak flow over the western US plus blocking high pressure to the east forced the storm to "retrograde" (aka backtrack) to the west into the extreme southwestern U.S.
Combined, these factors created an unusually powerful storm system which stretched well over 1,000 miles - with intense winds in southern California and Nevada and rain and snow over Colorado. We broke various records with this storm.
SNOWFALL:
In Colorado Springs, we received 10.2 inches on Thursday March 14th. That breaks several records (even though it's on the low end of totals for this storm)!
*Single day snowfall record for March 14th
*7th highest single day snowfall total in March on record. NOT in the Top 10 all time - rank 26th.
On Friday, parts of Colorado Springs reported an additional 4-10 inches of snow. At the airport, 2.2 inches was reported officially for a 2 day storm total of 12.4 inches. This does not break the top 10 all time highest 2-day record totals in Colorado Springs. We didn't make the top 10 for 2 day March totals either - which would've required 13.8 inches to tie a record set in 1964. This was a warm storm with a strong dependence on elevation - higher elevation zones of Colorado Springs saw significantly more snow (see how much in the interactive map below).
In parts of Teller County - and much of the high country in the Front Range and Southern mountains, 3 foot totals were common. While official records aren't as robust in some of the high country, this is on the high end for a single storm system.
RAINFALL/PRECIPITATION:
Pueblo set a monthly one-day precipitation record on Thursday, with 1.53 inches of rain! Lets put some context into that. Pueblo typically sees 0.82 inches of liquid for the month. That's nearly twice the normal monthly rainfall in March, in a single day. It's also the most single day precipitation Pueblo has ever seen in the 4 month span of November - March...which is the dry season.
In Colorado Springs, the two day precipitation total from Thursday to Friday of 1.31 inches was the 10th highest 2-day March total on record.
Use this interactive map to see snow reports near your house!
COLORADO SNOW TOTALS:
Use this interactive map to see rain reports near your house. Several inch totals were common:
COLORADO RAIN TOTALS:
Top snow totals from Wednesday afternoon through 12PM Friday:
Pictures from around Southern Colorado:
Thank you to the many viewers who sent us photos, measurements, and observations during and after the storm.
Starting off in Teller County, Pam's porch was absolutely buried in snow by Friday afternoon!
We received many creative measurements of snow totals throughout the storm:
In Florissant, David Johnson sent us this picture on Friday:
Also in Divide, Kimberley caught this deer making its way around the snow drifts:
Meanwhile in Cañon City, where some zones picked up more than a foot, Toni captured this snowed in shot:
In Red Wing in Huerfano County, Benny Ontiveros sent us this photo on Friday morning:
In the Wet Mountains, Steele Watkins captured a deer family trekking through feet of snow on Friday:
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