The Return of Winter (and the Upslope)

As promised, winter returned with a vengeance yesterday afternoon, and by today we had 16 inches of new snow on the ground.  Meanwhile, Vail Ski Resort where the World Championships are being held, received a meager 4 inches of snow, while Denver and Boulder ended up with around 7 inches or so.  How is it possible that the metro areas ended up with more so than a mountain ski resort?  It’s all about the upslope….

Living in other parts of the country, I just presumed weather moved from west to east, because that’s what it always seemed like, looking at the big weather maps on TV.

But in fact, here in Colorado, the Front Range, which encompasses all the big cities of Fort Collins, Boulder, Denver and Colorado Springs as well as foothill towns like Nederland, received its biggest snowstorms when the winds shift around from the east.  Moisture pulls from the Gulf of Mexico to our south, winds flow from the east, flowing upslope, dropping snow along the foot of the mountains and all along the foothills.  Upslope storms tend to happen much more frequently in the spring, thus making March and April two of our snowiest months.  One of the biggest snowstorms ever to hit Nederland was in March, 2003, when and upslope storm dropped up to 7 feet of snow over the course of 3 days.  More about that on the anniversary of this storm next month.

Upslope snow storms can really benefit our local ski area, Eldora, as they can get a lot of snow when all the other ski resorts are getting just a few inches.  And judging from the continuous flow of traffic uphill this morning, I’d say that many who got the President’s Day holiday off were enjoying all that upslope powder.