Surprise Snowstorm Blankets Colorado Up to 2 Feet Deep

Just when Bill Ellis thought it was safe to stow his snow shovel for the season, a storm delivered at least a couple feet of snow to his mountain home in southwestern Colorado.

“It caught us unaware,” Ellis said Friday, three days after he was biking around Vallecito Lake near his home.

In Denver, heavy wet snow coated budding trees and grass that already had begun turning green. Temperatures hovered in the high 20s, a sharp drop from the 70s of Monday and Tuesday.

Faced with a thick layer of snow across Coors Field, the Colorado Rockies canceled their first home game of the season, an exhibition against the Boston Red Sox.

The storm blanketed thirsty prairies and mountains with the first significant precipitation in weeks, sending residents hunting for gloves and parkas that they haven’t used much all season.

Catie Wigand, owner of Destination Cyclery in Parker, said she wasn’t too concerned about the snowfall because shoppers still wander in to look. Besides, she noted, “If anyone’s from Colorado, they know it’s going to be nice tomorrow.”

Snowfall amounts ranged from 3 inches in the Canon City area and 5 inches in metropolitan Denver to 2 feet in the Durango area, with additional accumulation forecast Friday night.

Some schools canceled classes or delayed start times, and skiers and snowboarders flocked to resorts.

A few flights were delayed at Denver International Airport, but there were no significant weather-related problems, officials said.

The precipitation was welcomed statewide after a winter that has been the driest in 18 years, said Nolan Doeskin, a state climatologist.