Could be “a top 10 May snow event for the Denver metro area”
The powerful spring storm dropped more than a foot of sloppy, wet snow in parts of Colorado and Wyoming on Mother’s Day.
Nearly 400 miles of Interstate-80 in Wyoming were closed after the spring storm dumped up to 3 feet of snow in parts of the state.
In Colorado, snow amounts could vary greatly, but up to 15 inches could fall at higher elevations and 4 to 9 inches at lower elevations.
“If we see the total accumulations that we are anticipating from this storm, we are certainly going to see a top 10 May snow event for the Denver metro area,” said David Barjenbruch, a weather service meteorologist in Boulder.
Plunging temperatures and heavy, wet snow caused multiple accidents and forced several closures along Interstate 70 west of Denver on Sunday afternoon, while part of westbound I-80 in Nebraska was closed to keep motorists from reaching Wyoming.
Interstate 25 from Fort Collins to the Wyoming border was also closed.
We got about a foot of snow and all the trees are covered. It looks like a beautiful painting,’” said Janie Robertson, owner of the Dripping Springs Resort B&B in Estes Park.
The weather service said mountainous areas in south-central Wyoming got up to 2 feet of snow, and the metro areas of Cheyenne and Laramie averaged 6 to 10 inches.
Jim Kalina, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boulder, Colorado, said the Denver metropolitan area could see up to 9 inches of snow and some mountain communities could expect accumulations of three feet.
http://news.msn.com/us/spring-snows-hit-rockies-plains-face-high-winds
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/colorado-wyoming-slammed-spring-snowstorm-n102626
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/11/us-usa-weather-idUSBREA4A0A020140511
Thanks to Dean Koehler and Argiris Diamantis for these links