Colorado
Strong winter storm impacting southern Colorado today
Today’s Forecast:
Our well-advertised winter storm impacts us today in southern Colorado. Rain and snow showers are ongoing along the I-25 corridor, southern mountains, and eastern plains. Several lightning strikes were detected overnight on the eastern plains due to instability in place with this potent system.
Various winter weather alerts are in effect:
Snow totals will depend on elevation, with the rain/snow line hovering around 6,000 feet today. It will drop down a bit this evening, so any remaining rain/snow after 8:00PM will have a better chance of falling as snow at elevations as low as 5,000 feet.
Very solid Gulf of Mexico and Pacific moisture, combined with a rapidly strengthening surface low to our southeast producing good upslope, will combine to produce heavy rain and snow rates. When we get these heavy precipitation rates, our air cools – so despite marginal temperatures, expect more snow than rain today, particularly above 6,000 feet in elevation. While snow will continue all day, I expect two rounds of heavier snow. The first will be this morning into early afternoon as very strong upslope flow combines with a bit of instability (thunderstorm energy) to produce strong snow rates. Snow continues through the afternoon, and may again be heavy at times mid-afternoon and the evening as the low begins to move away. As it does so, our airflow will “stretch out” a bit, and this stretching gives the air a bit of energy to produce banding snow. There’s a bit of a question as to whether this energy stays along the I-25 corridor or moves west – which will affect our snow timeline. I’m leaning it sticking west of I-25, but east of the mountains for now, which keeps snow in our forecast through the evening.
Snow showers will become more sporadic tonight, with a few lingering into tomorrow morning before the entire system rolls away by afternoon and sunshine returns.
Colorado Springs forecast: High: 38; Low: 25.
Rain and snow. Snow generally above 6,000 feet – west of I-25, with rain east toward the airport and Fountain. Patchy fog will also roll through the area. Snow totals will vary by elevation with the highest totals in Briargate, Rockrimmon, and other higher elevation portions of the Springs. Snow will generally end around 10PM tonight, with remnant showers possible through Sunday morning.
Pueblo forecast: High: 43; Low: 27.
Rain for the most part due to warmer temperatures from your lower elevation relative to other regions. Rain will be heavy at times. It’ll also be breezy with a north wind increasing in the afternoon to 10-25 mph. Overall, a fairly dreary day but you won’t need the shovels! Tonight, you’ll cool down. Remnant moisture could fall as snow, so in a high end scenario you could get an inch of snow from this storm.
Canon City forecast: High: 41; Low: 29.
Rain and snow mix, with snow whenever the precipitation is falling more heavily. Snow gets heavier late this afternoon before ending around 11PM/12AM – with remnant showers still possible until early Sunday. Your best chance for accumulations come tonight.
Woodland Park forecast: High: 32; Low: 18.
WINTER STORM WARNING in effect until Sunday at 5:00AM.
Snow. Heavy – both in rate, and type…very water heavy and spring-like. Good for making snowballs, heavy to shovel. Continuous snow ends by 11PM with hit-or-miss snow showers continuing into early Saturday.
Tri-Lakes forecast: High: 29-32; Low: 20s.
WINTER STORM WARNING in effect until Sunday at 5:00AM.
Plains forecast: High: 40s; Low: 30s.
Snow. Heavy at times with 1-2″/hr rates possible. Snow gets lighter during the mid-afternoon, with parts of the area potentially seeing an end to snow. However, snow generally should continue into the evening.
Walsenburg and Trinidad forecast: High: 36; Low: 23.
WINTER STORM WARNING in effect until Sunday at 5:00AM.
Snow, heavy at times, with a rumble or two of thunder possible. Snow will become more hit or miss tonight.
Mountains forecast: High: 30s; Low: 20s.
WINTER STORM WARNING in effect until Sunday at 5:00AM.
Heavy snow with high accumulations. Northeast winds at 10-15 mph. Patchy blowing snow tonight.
Extended outlook forecast:
Highs return to the 50s Monday with a period of relatively calm weather before we bring in more clouds Tuesday as a system moves into the mountains. Our next chance for unsettled weather looks to be late next week, as our next upper level trough approaches.
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Colorado
Warm storm delivers modest totals to Colorado’s northern mountains
Lucas Herbert/Arapahoe Basin Ski Area
Friday morning wrapped up a warm storm across Colorado’s northern and central mountains, bringing totals of up to 10 inches of snowfall for several resorts.
Higher elevation areas of the northern mountains — particularly those in and near Summit County and closer to the Continental Divide — received the most amount of snow, with Copper, Winter Park and Breckenridge mountains seeing among the highest totals.
Meanwhile, lower base areas and valleys received rain and cloudy skies, thanks to a warmer storm with a snow line of roughly 9,000 feet.
Earlier this week, OpenSnow meteorologists predicted the storm’s snow totals would be around 5-10 inches, closely matching actual totals for the northern mountains. The central mountains all saw less than 5 inches of snow.
Here’s how much snow fell between Wednesday through Friday morning for some Western Slope mountains, according to a Friday report from OpenSnow:
Aspen Mountain: 0.5 inches
Snowmass: 0.5 inches
Copper Mountain: 10 inches
Winter Park: 9 inches
Breckenridge Ski Resort: 9 inches
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area: 8.5 inches
Keystone Resort: 8 inches
Loveland Ski Area: 7 inches
Vail Mountain: 7 inches
Steamboat Resort: 6 inches
Beaver Creek: 6 inches
Irwin: 4.5 inches
Cooper Mountain: 4 inches
Sunlight: 0.5 inches
Friday and Saturday will be dry, while Sunday will bring northern showers. The next storms are forecast to be around March 3-4 and March 6-7, both favoring the northern mountains.
Colorado
Avalanche discipline, power play falters, Central Division lead shrinks in 5-2 loss to Wild
The Colorado Avalanche had a chance Thursday night to regain some real separation between them and the Minnesota Wild.
It didn’t happen, and special teams were again an issue.
Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek scored a pair of power-play goals, while the Avalanche took too many penalties and did not convert its chances with the extra man in a 5-2 loss at Ball Arena. The Wild scored on two of six power plays, both in the second period, then added a shorthanded goal into an empty net for good measure.
“We took six (penalties). Six is too many, especially against a power play like theirs,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We had a slow start to the second and then just kind of started getting going, then took a bunch of penalties and kind of took the momentum away and swung it back in their favor again.”
Mackenzie Blackwood was excellent early in this contest and stopped 31 of 34 shots for the Avs in his first start since the Olympic break. Colorado, which went 0-for-3 on the power play, has not scored an extra-man goal in back-to-back games since Dec. 31 and Jan. 3. The Avs are 2-for-31 with the man advantage since Jan. 16, and at 15.1% are last in the NHL.
The Wild are now just five points behind the Avs in the Central Division, though Colorado has two games in hand. Filip Gustavsson made 44 saves for the visitors.
“I think we crated enough chances to win the hockey game,” Bednar said. “We give up the (second power-play goal) and that’s the difference in the hockey game for me. We had a chance (on the power play) … we score and it’s a tie game. We haven’t had an easy time capitalizing on some of our chances that we created in the last month.
“I’d like to see that turn around a little bit.”
Minnesota took advantage of three penalties on Colorado in a span of 53 seconds to take the lead with 2:23 left in the second period. Captain Gabe Landeskog was sent to the box for elbowing Eriksson Ek away from the play at 14:15 and Valeri Nichushkin was called for cross-checking at 15:04.
That gave the Wild a 5-on-3, but it went from bad to worse in a hurry for the home side. Brock Nelson won the 3-on-5 in his own end, but Brent Burns’ backhanded attempt to clear the puck out of the zone went into the stands for a delay of game.
Minnesota had a 5-on-3 for 1:56, which Colorado successfully killed off, but because Burns’ two minutes didn’t start until Landeskog’s penalty ended, there was more 5-on-4 time and Eriksson Ek scored his second of the night. The Swedish Olympian was trying to send a cross-crease pass to Kirill Kaprizov, but it hit the inside of Blackwood’s right leg and pinballed across the goal line.
Because of the extended penalty time, both Eriksson Ek and Boldy officially logged a shift of more than four minutes, leading to that goal.
“I’m not a big fan of the penalties we took, necessarily,” Landeskog said. “Obviously, mine is a penalty. Val, I felt like he was protecting himself and Burns, that’s a penalty. There’s nothing to argue about there. But yeah, that tilts the ice for sure and just gives them unnecessary momentum.
“So yeah, undisciplined and we’ve got to be better there for sure.”
Eriksson Ek put Minnesota in front at 7:48 of the second period. Cale Makar was called for slashing when his one-handed swipe while Yakov Trenin was attempting to shoot from the left wing. Trenin’s stick broke, so Makar went to the box.
Blackwood made the initial save on Matt Boldy’s shot from the high slot, but Eriksson Ek was there near the left post to clean up the rebound.
Martin Necas continued his hot run with a goal to even the score at 13:30 of the middle frame. Nathan MacKinnon picked up the puck in his own zone and carried it into the offensive end. He left a drop pass for Necas near the right point and then played fullback, driving Wild defenseman Daemon Hunt back to give Necas space and then providing a screen on a lethal wrist shot from his Czech linemate.
That was Necas’ 24th goal of the season. He added a second goal in the final minute after the Wild had built a three-goal advantage to give him 25 on the season.
It’s also three in two games since the Olympic break. Necas had three goals and eight points in five games for Czechia at the Olympics in Milan, equaling his country’s record for points at the event.
MacKinnon missed Colorado’s first game back on Wednesday because of maintenance. He actually slipped to third in the NHL scoring race as of Thursday morning, in part because Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov has now has 53 points in his past 23 games to track down MacKinnon and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid to make it a three-man race for the Art Ross Trophy.
McDavid (five times) and Kucherov (three) have combined to win the Art Ross in eight of the past nine years. MacKinnon has never won it, but has finished second each of the past two seasons.
Minnesota scored a second goal off a Colorado player to make it a 3-1 game and then added two empty-net tallies around Necas’ second goal to seal the Wild’s sixth win in a row.
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Colorado
Firefighters stop spread of wildfire in Colorado’s Golden Gate Canyon
Late Thursday morning, a house fire spreading into the nearby woods in Colorado’s Golden Gate Canyon prompted officials to issue a pre-evacuation order to nearby residents. Firefighters have since brought the blaze under control.
According to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, a house fire broke out around 11:30 a.m. in the 10600 block of Ralston Creek Road in Golden Gate Canyon, located around 25 miles west of Denver. The fire then began to spread into the nearby trees and grass.
Multiple fire units quickly responded to the scene, and the JCSO issued a pre-evacuation notice to all residents within a three-mile radius, warning them to be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice.
At 12:34 p.m., the sheriff’s office announced that the fire is no longer spreading and the burn area has been contained to less than an acre. A photo shared by JCSO shows a structure nearly completely destroyed by the fire.
Pre-evacuation orders were lifted around 1 p.m.
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