Winter Conditions Expected for Another Rebound This Week
Trevor Phipps
In most years, those living in the Teller high country received a couple of warnings and preliminary, brief snows before a huge blast.
That’s no longer the case. This year, Mother Nature decided to douse much of Colorado with several feet of snow over a span of three-plus days, bringing back memories of a horrific blizzard in the spring of 2024, and summoning local public works crews into an emergency mode prior to Thanksgiving. This is a highly unusual scenario for this time of year.
The storm made its arrival towards the end of Election Day, when the last of the ballots were getting counted up. The snow came in quick and fierce forcing the Woodland Park High School Soccer team to play a home playoff match in blizzard conditions. Area schools were closed for several days.
Parts of Teller County got around a foot the first night, but then it just wouldn’t let up. In fact, snowfall continued for the next few days and showed no signs of easing until the mid-afternoon of Nov. 9. And even that evening and in the early hours of Nov. 10, snowflakes were reported falling from the skies again in Green Mountain Falls and public works vehicles could be heard revving up for anther assault against Mother Nature.
In the end, parts of Southern Colorado received more than three feet of snowfall including San Isabel, Trinidad, La Veta Pass, Cuchara and Genoa. Woodland Park recorded 24 inches with places like Monument and Black Forest receiving just a little more. The City Above the Clouds and surrounding areas, such as Green Mountain Falls and Cascade, caught the brunt of the storm with Colorado Springs only recording around 20 inches. Cripple Creek and Manitou Springs collected just over 10 inches of snowfall.
During most of the week after Election Day, roads around the entire Ute Pass region were icy and snow packed with television stations advising people to stay off the roads. There were some reported incidents of stranded motorists and jack-knifed semi-trucks, but there were no major casualties reported.
The snow did shock many residents as many locals couldn’t remember large amounts of snow falling during the middle of the fall season. Although the recent November storm was not the first recorded snow storm of the year, it produced more snow than any other storm since the blast the area received last March.
Some of the ski resorts in the state were able to open up earlier than anticipated, with a spree of mountains already up and running for the ’24-’25 winter season. However, the nature of this snow blast concentrated most of the moisture towards the southern parts of the state, forcing many of the ski resorts in Central Colorado to miss out on a lot of the action
When Will Snow Return?
Parts of the state received another round of snow last week, but forecasters weren’t expected much in the Ute Pass region. However, the forecasters are predicting another storm to make its way from the Western states this week.
At press time, the storm was still too far away to reasonably predict, but forecasters did agree that some snow would be hitting the Pikes Peak region. Some said the storm activity, which was originally slated to hit Sunday, is predicted to stick around until Tuesday or Wednesday this week.
According to Mountain-Forecast.com, the storm could blanket Southern Colorado with possibly two feet of snow between Monday and Tuesday. However, The Weather Channel, however, appeared less optimistic of this prediction and had Woodland Park only receiving an inch of snow.
After the first big snow blast, many have feared that the surprising fall dump was sign of more to come. However, most forecasters and climate officials disagree and say that residents need to be grateful for the moisture the area does receive this winter. In fact, with the latest bombardment, Teller County officials were able to rescind any more fire restrictions. For a brief period, and a situation propelled by a huge structure fire in Divide, the area was put on a Stage 3 fire alert, considered one of the most restrictive.
According to national weather forecasters, the winter season is looking dry and mild for Colorado as El Nino has already left and La Nina has made her way into the Pacific. The experts say that this means the moisture will favor the northern parts of the country and leave the southern states including Colorado drier than usual.
Drier than average conditions are expected for the Four Corner states and those in the southern parts of the country. Therefore, experts say that Teller County residents should only expect a few major snowstorms this year, and one could already be out of the way.
“Unfortunately, after a brief period in the spring of 2024 with minimal drought conditions across the country, more than a quarter of the land mass in the continental U.S. is currently in at least a moderate drought,” Brad Pugh, operational drought lead with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center said in an article published on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) website. “And the winter precipitation outlook does not bode well for widespread relief.”
The NOAA website goes further to say that extreme to moderate drought conditions will strike across most of the Great Plains states and parts of the Rocky Mountains. The southern parts of the Rockies are slated to be the drier than normal for the 2024/2025 season.
Predictions for this winter, though, are highly mixed. The Farmer’s Almanac has called for a “temperate, uneventful winter” in Colorado. Other media outlets say we can expect a colder, more average Colorado winter, but with little downtime between bouts of rain and snow. And the Coloradoan publication is predicting overall a “wet winter whirlwind.”
Time will tell in determining which of these predictions, or if any, come close to the truth.
