For once the mountains let the rest of Colorado play in the snow.
Snowfall was widespread and deep this first storm of winter:
- Over 20 inches on the Front Range, stretching more than 100 miles from Genesee to Colorado Springs
- Over 30 inches in Trinidad, La Junta and elsewhere on the eastern Plains
- Over 40 inches for Breckenridge
- 55 inches for Copper Mountain
Snowpack for most of the state is much higher than average today.
- 128 percent of average in Summit County and the Upper Colorado River basin
- 147 percent in the Roaring Fork River basin
- 190 percent in the Gunnison River basin
- 236+ percent in southern Colorado (these numbers not fully confirmed by the USDA database)
Just one slice of the state did not get hammered with snow – the northern mountains, including Steamboat, and west into the remote northwestern corner of the state.
Snowpack in Steamboat is just about average today. Snowpack in the Green River basin is below average.
All this snow did wonders for drought.
Just three months ago only one-third of the state was drought-free.
Today, close to half the state has no drought, including most of the Vail area and south into Leadville, Buena Vista and the San Juans.
Most of the rest of us are abnormally dry, like Summit, or under minor drought.
Just one slice of the state is threatened by extreme drought today, from the northern mountains of Jackson County into Larimer County, including Fort Collins, and Boulder County.