A fresh wave of snow expected to start falling today and continue overnight could dump historic amounts of snow and make roads and highways in parts of central and eastern Colorado impassible.
Gov. Jared Polis declared a disaster emergency for the state and activated the Colorado National Guard and the state emergency operations center to help cities and counties deal with the impacts. Snowfall may be measured in feet in parts of the state, particularly south and east of Denver.
The snow will come from the same storm system that has already dropped more than 3 feet of snow in parts of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and 2 feet of snow in parts of Huerfano, Pueblo and Jefferson counties since Tuesday.
The storm system, which stalled out over the Four Corners area, has slowly and steadily fed moisture into Colorado for days. That system is expected to move from the Southern Rockies into central parts of the state and funnel in an intense blast of new snow, said Ayesha Wilkinson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Boulder field office.
The snowfall is expected to start intensifying this afternoon, she said. Forecast models show the bullseye is east of Interstate 25 and south of Interstate 70, with up to 18 inches of new snow possible from Castle Rock east to Kiowa, Limon and Karval.
“It's possible that it will be almost impossible to travel in some of those areas Friday night,” Wilkinson said.
Starting Friday afternoon, up to 2 inches of snow could fall per hour in those areas and the Palmer Divide, federal forecasters said. Intense snowfall is also expected in the Denver and Colorado Springs metro areas, which could get 8 inches of new snow, according to the weather service, which has issued winter storm warnings for almost the entire eastern half of Colorado.
The Colorado Department of Transportation warned of “treacherous” travel conditions that could last through Saturday across eastern parts of the state, and many schools and daycares were preemptively closed, along with other government offices.
Many skiers and boarders are cheering the long-lasting storm system and deluge of fresh snow, which is building a base for runs early in the ski season. The timing has been perfect for Vail Resorts, with the storm sandwiched between Keystone’s opening last weekend and today’s opening at Breckenridge, which has enjoyed more than 2 feet of fresh snow.
Joel Gratz, the founding meteorologist of OpenSnow — a weather forecasting app that delivers detailed snow reports and updates on ski conditions for the snow-obsessed — expects the storm will be disruptive, but noted that parts of Colorado desperately need the moisture.
The snowfall could be a gift in other ways, too, Gratz said. “I know it impacts travel and traffic, but with a little bit of advanced planning … you can have a lot of fun in the snow and hopefully avoid most of the negative impact.”
Alison Borden, Arlo Pérez Esquivel, Rachel Estabrook and Sarah Mulholland contributed to this report.
