AM Storm Update – Here Comes the Snow!

Weather Alerts

NWS Weather Alerts as of this morning

NWS has upgraded the Palmer Divide and foothills to a Winter Storm Warning. This warning has been issued due to the expectation of heavy snow and higher snow accumulations resulting in difficult and hazardous driving conditions. The Warning and Advisory issued runs through 12AM Saturday so expect travel issues to linger into Friday evening.

Updated Expected Snowfall Amounts

As expected, models bumped up snowfall amounts last night but only slightly. Since I was waiting for this signal before I updated my own forecast, I have decided to tweak my snowfall amounts.

Expected snowfall through Saturday AM

The reason I waited a bit to raise our forecast is that I wanted to see more agreement between the models before pulling the trigger on the snow amounts going up. I saw that this morning so here is what we're looking at:

• Castle Rock, Parker, Lone Tree areas
  *Lone Tree may be slightly lower depending on melting and temperatures due to elevation*
  • 6-12 inches
• Elbert, Elizabeth, Kiowa
  • 5-10 inches
• Larkspur, Monument
  • 6-12 inches
• Woodland Park, Palmer Lake, W. Colorado Springs Foothills
  • 7-14 inches

Summary

Live radar as of 7:50AM

While this storm won't be the city crippling "blizzard" that a lot are hoping for; the good news is that this storm will provide some extremely beneficial moisture we have been lacking around the region so far. If you're working today, I'd highly recommend leaving early, the evening commute looks rough and roads will continue to be dicey through the evening and nighttime hours.

The Winter Storm Warning issue by the NWS is notable, they only issue these when they expect road conditions to deteriorate pretty badly.

So if you're out and about today, take it slow, be safe, stay warm and be careful. The Palmer Divide is in the bulls-eye today so expect roads South of Denver to Colorado Springs to deteriorate throughout the day and be pretty nasty by afternoon and evening hours..

School Delays/Closures

There are some school closures in Elbert County, here's the latest as of this writing:

Closings Last Updated at 7:52am on 1/11/2019