Ah yes, the changing of the seasons is here and that means our weather conditions go from one extreme to the next. Following a dry, warm week, Mother Nature brought snow to Colorado’s high country Friday night into Saturday leading to the closure of the highest, continues road in North America.
Rocky Mountain National Park reported dangerous conditions near the top of the Trail Ridge Road resulting in its temporary closure at Rainbow Curve on the east side and Milner Pass on the west side. Also closed was Old Fall River Road. Video from Trail Ridge showed a wintry scene looking like the Arctic tundra.
The agency said this was not the seasonal closure – yet.
Trail Ridge Road will be unable to open before Memorial Day as Rocky Mountain National Park has received more snow this year than in any of the past 20 years. View a slideshow of the piled up snow below. (RMNP / NPS)
Historically the highest continuous road in the United States, Trail Ridge Road, opens right before the Memorial Day weekend. That won’t be the case this year as with snow falling as recently as just a couple of days ago, the snow is just too deep.
The Denver Weather Examiner has a story about the mountains of snow up in Rocky Mountain National Park. The snow up there approaches levels not seen in the past 20 years.
Just last week a winter storm dumped snow across the northern Colorado mountains and along the Continental Divide. On the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park, snow drifts reached 17 feet high above Rainbow Curve.
The heavy snow accumulation, snow drifts and rock slides are hampering efforts to open the road this season. Snowplow operators said they were battling the most snow this late in the season in the past 30 years.
The central and northern Colorado mountains have seen an extraordinary amount of snowfall this year with the snowpack approaching record levels. In stark contrast, Denver is likely to finish the snow season with the second least amount of snow on record.
To date Denver has officially recorded a paltry 22.8 inches of the white stuff. Here in Thornton we have fared worse with only 21.8 inches. Recent rains have helped to ease the drought but we will need to keep moisture coming to prevent a bad fire season this summer.
