Heavy snow falling, but late to start and accumulate.

Our Spring snowstorm has finally materialized, but many hours late, as I predicted. Yesterday, light rain and a couple gropple storms covered much of the Boulder area. The rain did not turn to snow until about 6:00 this morning and this will reduce our snowfall totals. The very wet snow is also having trouble accumulating on the warm ground and has only reached about 1.5 inches in the last three hours on grassy areas. Roads are slushy, but not snow covered and not really slippery yet.

Last night, the National Weather Service reported snow falling in the foothills, accumulating to 2-9 inches. There was nothing on radar to indicate this, and I spoke with a couple friends (who live above 7000 feet) who said only light rain was falling. Perhaps one of the smaller valleys at higher altitudes was receiving snow, but this was certainly not representative of the Front Range foothills. In any case, the latest NWS forecast is still calling for up to two feet of snow for Boulder by Saturday evening. I think this will eventually turn out to be a significant snowstorm, but with a surface temperature just over 35 degrees, so far it's just slushfest '09. I think it's safe to say that NWS has over-estimated snowfall totals for this storm. I'll probaby start shooting this afternoon and I'll try to post some shots then.