Deep snow expected to trickle into rivers
Gradual warming eases fears of surging waters
This week’s “Maycember” snowstorm that buried the Front Range foothills was unexpected but hardly cataclysmic.
Tree limbs fell. Electrical wires, too. Culverts clogged. Roads and schools closed.
The impacts of the wet storm were melting with the snow by midday Friday. Roads were back open, electrical outages were getting repaired and the springtime return of winter faded into a soggy memory for the Front Range.
But downstream communities were bracing for the surge as the South Platte River swelled and promised (hopefully) minor flooding, with as much as 42 inches of snow beginning its peaks-to-plains descent.
With the heavily blanketed basins of Clear Creek, Coal Creek, St. Vrain Creek, Big Thompson River and Cache la Poudre River pouring into the South Platte, the river’s flow at Sterling was nearing 3,000 cubic feet per second on Friday afternoon, almost double the 30-year mean for May 19.
The National Weather Service on Friday morning issued flood advisories for the South Platte near Kersey and in Logan, Washington and Morgan counties.
Logan County sent out early warning notifications for residents along the South Platte. But the good news was a gradual warming forecast for Saturday and Sunday. That means the snow melt was coming down in a pushy trickle, rather than a deluge.
“This is going to be a slow process moving through. With no immediate or drastic temperature rise, that’s a blessing for us down here,” said Steve Enfante, the director of the Morgan County Office of Emergency Management. “We are just kind of waiting and seeing where this thing goes. We are ready in case something should happen and we will be monitoring flows throughout the weekend.”
The Colorado National Guard was activated late Thursday for potential snow rescues, but stood down early Friday after no missions. The Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management had no resource requests Friday.
In Weld County, portions of the Poudre River Trail between Windsor and Greeley were flooded and officials were watching the South Platte, but not expecting much more than minor flooding, said Roy Rudisill, Weld County’s emergency management director.
About the biggest problem
Friday was digging out and mopping up. A particular challenge was restoring electrical service after snow-laden limbs cleaved from trees and ripped down power lines.
From early Thursday through midday Friday, Xcel Energy logged 722 outages impacting 117,931 customers — but most of those were hiccups that lasted less than a minute. Of the 99 outages the company was addressing Friday, only 30 started Thursday, impacting about 400 customers in the foothills around Evergreen and west of Boulder.
“In some cases, our crews had to snowshoe to the affected lines,” Xcel spokeswoman Michelle Aguayo said.
Estes Park residents were shoveling 31 inches of wet snow Friday. That snow collapsed the historic barn at the Elkhorn Lodge on Thursday. All the town’s roads were plowed and clear, and Estes Park Light & Power had repaired 43 outages by midday Friday. The crews — totaling 18 workers — had about 15 more to repair.
In Boulder County — which absorbed the most snow from the return-ofwinter storm that blanketed Allenspark with a stateleading 42 inches — roundthe-clock crews had cleared all the major roadways by Friday and expected to have all the secondary roads plowed by the afternoon.
“The issues we are having are not really concerns,” said Mike Chard, director for the Boulder Office of Emergency Management. “We are expecting a gradual melt. We are watching it closely, but I’m not anticipating any flooding issues.”
Logan County’s emergency response team is in place with plans for an operations center, extra emergency personnel and machinery in case the South Platte slips its banks Saturday. The river at Balzac was running around 6.35 feet Friday afternoon, and emergency response kicks in around 9 feet. The river reaches its banks at 10 feet. After flooding events in 2013 and 2015, Logan County is ready, said Kyle Moulton, the county’s director of emergency management.
Like his counterparts on the South Platte downstream of the Front Range, Moulton was glad to see the overnight forecasts with temperatures below freezing, meaning the run-off from the Front Range should be less than a walloping surge.
“We have issues when it comes down so fast,” Moulton said. “We are getting ahead of it this time and we are doing all right.”