Snow set to blow in, bury parts of 3 states

A major winter storm started unloading potentially historic amounts of snow Saturday in parts of Colorado, Wyoming and western Nebraska and the onslaught is expected to last through today.

Before the wintry hit is over, some places in the Colorado foothills and eastern Rockies might end up with as much as 4 feet of snow. Some cities, particularly Cheyenne, Wyo., could challenge alltime snowfall records.

Blizzard warnings are in effect for a large portion of southeastern Wyoming for this reason, including the cities of Laramie and Cheyenne. Gusts of 35 to 60 mph are causing blowing and drifting of the snow, through Saturday night and today, as well as whiteout conditions.

The National Weather Service office in Cheyenne issued a statement Saturday afternoon warning of a “historic and crippling winter storm,” and warning that travel could be impossible “until at least early Monday.

Power failures and roof collapses also are possible in some areas, especially in Colorado, because of the heavy, wet nature of the snowfall there.

Winter-storm warnings are in effect in Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins, Colo., where the National Weather Service predicted 12 to 24 inches of snow.

In Cheyenne, 15 to 25 inches are predicted, with isolated amounts exceeding 30 inches. If Cheyenne’s snowfall exceeds 25.6 inches over three days, that amount would beat the previous record from a single storm, set in 1979.

“Conditions will deteriorate today as the storm arrives, but the most severe conditions will likely hold off until Saturday evening,” the weather service office in Boulder wrote Saturday morning.

The ingredients for the storm were combining Saturday afternoon as a strong midlevel disturbance plowed east over the Four Corners region. Nestled within a dip in the jet stream, the energetic system was drawing moisture north across the southern Plains. Moisture was streaming north from both the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico “in amounts rarely seen in this area of the country,” according to forecasters at the weather service in Cheyenne.

The humid air moving north, where it collided with colder, drier air, resulted in severe thunderstorms and tornadoes Saturday in the Texas panhandle.

However, over the Front Range, that moisture was forced up the mountains to fall as snow.

Rain with embedded bursts of snow already had moved into southeastern Colorado from eastern New Mexico early Saturday. Another arcing band of snow associated with the main impulse of energy moved over Colorado from the west.

This storm also has a severe-weather component to it, with severe thunderstorms and flooding anticipated in parts of Texas and Oklahoma on Saturday.

The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center hoisted a Level 4 out of 5 moderate risk for severe weather for the Texas panhandle.

The same system could induce a more widespread threat of severe weather across the South on Wednesday, with spots from Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi through Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia all in the area to watch. Tornadoes will once again be possible.

The snowstorm threat will wind down as the storm tracks east across the southern Plains into Monday.