Record heat and shrinking snow barely put a dent on I-70 this weekend.
It was the second busiest weekend of ski season at the Eisenhower-Johnson tunnels with 135,596 cars in three days, March 20-23.
That was 2% busier than the previous weekend and 5% slower than the same time last year, shy of the busiest weekend this season by roughly 1,000 vehicles.
Record heat persists
For a fifth consecutive day, Summit County broke a high-temperature record. We hit 64 degrees Fahrenheit around midday today in Dillon, beating the old record of 61 degrees from March 23, 2004.
Not only is Summit smashing high temperatures, but the average low temperature is much warmer than usual.
We are averaging 19 degrees at night this month. That is 7 degrees warmer than last March, 2 degrees warmer than the most comparable hot streak in March 2017, when snowpack was much healthier than this season.
April showers
Forecasters are hoping history repeats itself and April showers come to the rescue.
In 2018, our snowpack was almost as low as this year until multiple spring storms in April.
It was a similar story in 2004, when big April storms salvaged a premature thaw after record heat in March.
Two-week forecast from the National Weather Service shows a chance for precipitation this coming weekend. Before then though? More record heat.
Weekly I-70 tunnel counts brought to you by Dillon Ridge Liquors.