A potent spring snowstorm brought heavy snow to portions of the North Central Mountains and Front Range Foothills. Storm totals included: 17 inches at Genesee, 16 inches at Rollinsville, 15 inches at Breckenridge Ski Area, 14 inches, 1 mile east of Buckhorn Mountain, the Eisenhower Tunnel and Intercanyon, 13 inches at Berthoud Ski Area, Coal Creek Canyon, 5 miles south of Evergreen and Winter…
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Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS BOU wrote it up.
A potent spring snowstorm brought heavy snow to portions of the North Central Mountains and Front Range Foothills. Storm totals included: 17 inches at Genesee, 16 inches at Rollinsville, 15 inches at Breckenridge Ski Area, 14 inches, 1 mile east of Buckhorn Mountain, the Eisenhower Tunnel and Intercanyon, 13 inches at Berthoud Ski Area, Coal Creek Canyon, 5 miles south of Evergreen and Winter Park, 12 inches at Loveland Ski Area, 11 inches at Aspen Springs, Chief Hosa and 1 mile northwest of Allenspark, 10 inches, 3 miles north of Blackhawk and 9 inches atop Crow Hill. Elsewhere snowfall totals ranged from 4 to 8 inches.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Denver/Boulder, CO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 10, 1:35 PM MST, 3 hours 25 minutes earlier.
NORTHEAST AND NORTH CENTRAL COLORADO AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER COLORADO
235 PM MDT TUE APR 10 2001
SHORT TERM DISCUSSION: STRONG UPPER LEVEL LOW ACROSS CENTRAL AZ ATTM
WITH MODELS IN GENERAL AGGREEMENT IN TRACKING LOW INTO 4 CORNERS
REGION TNT AND THEN INTO SERN CO BY WED MORNING. AS BEEN THE CASE
WITH LAST FEW RUNS...ETA HAS BEEN SLIGHTLY FURTHER SOUTH...NGM
NORTH AND AVN IN THE MIDDLE. WHAT ELSE IS NEW? APPEARS THE MORE
SOUTHERN SOLUTION MAY BE BEST AS SAT PICS COMPARED TO 18Z MODELS
SHOW SYSTEM JUST A TAD SOUTH AND WEST OF MODEL LOCATIONS. MAPS
ANALYSIS SHOWING BEST PRESS FALLS BETWEEN ALS AND TAD AND STRETCHING
EAST. THIS MATCHES PRETTY WELL WITH MESOETA SFC CYCLOGENESIS TNT
EXPECTED FROM TAD TO LHX. IN FACT LASTEST MM5 HAS SFC LOW EVEN A
LITTLE FURTHER SOUTH THEN MESO-ETA. THIS WILL RESULT IN STRONG NE
WINDS UP TO AROUND 400MB DEVELOPING TNT...SHIFTING N-NW AFT 09Z. IN
ADDITION STRONG 120KT JET POKING ITS NOSE INTO CENTRAL CO NOW WITH
STRONG DIV-Q UPWARD FORCING TNT. CONVECTION ALREADY BREAKING OUT
ACROSS MTN/FOOTHILL LOCATIONS WITH LAPSE RATES TNT PROGGED AROUND
7C/KM. ALL THINGS POINTING TO A MAJOR WINTER STORM FOR MUCH OF CWA
FOR TNT AND INTO WED. JUST LOOKED AT NEW 18Z MESOETA AND LOOKS QUITE
SIMILAR TO 12Z. THEREFORE...WILL GO AHEAD AND UPGRADE WATCHES TO
WARNINGS FOR MUCH OF CWA. ACROSS FAR NERN PLAINS WILL DELAY THE
WARNINGS SOME TO AFT MIDNIGHT BEFORE THINGS GET GOING THERE. WILL
ALSO HOIST WARNINGS FOR ALL MTNS ZNS. SNOW MODEL INDICATED SNOW
ADVISORY AMTNS FOR TNT...BUT TAC ON THE CONVECTIVE NATURE OF SNOWS
THIS EVENING AND STRONG DYNAMICS AND SOME AREAS CUD SEE AMOUNTS
GREATER THAN A FOOT. ENTREKIN
LONG TERM DISCUSSION...MDLS GENERALLY IN BETTER AGREEMENT TDA ON
CLSD UPR LO MOVG ACRS CNTRL RCKYS. ALL MDLS ARE FRTHR S WITH SYS
THAN YSTRDY...SO BIG PCPN AMTS MORE ACCPTBLE OVR AREA WITH SFC LOWS
FORMING TO S. MDLS TEND TO TAPER SNW OFF ALG URBAN CORRIDOR BY
MIDDAY AS WNDS BCM MORE NWLY AND DOWNSLOPE. WHILE MST OF SNW WILL
OCCUR OVRERNGT SNW WILL PERSIST THRU WED OVR MTNS AND FAR NERN
PLAINS. AS SYS DEEPENS E OF MTNS WNDS WILL BE STG ON PLAINS THRU
THE DAY. WILL MENTION NR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS OVR NERN CRNR WED.
WORKED OUT TOTAL SNW AMTS WITH SHORT TERM FCSTR. BRIEF BRK IN WX
WED NGT BFR EFFECTS OF NXT SYS ON THU AND THU NGT ARE FELT. THIS
NXT SYS TENDS TO WEAKEN AS IT MOVES ACRS CNTRL RCKYS. WILL MENTION
SUM SHWRS AND TSTMS DVLPG THU AFTN WITH RAIN OR SNW SHWRS CONTG INTO
THU NGT. TEMPS WILL BE SLO TO WRM AND WILL GENLY UNDERCUT MOS TEMP
GDNC DUE TO PERSISTENT CLDNS AND THREAT OF PCPN.
IN XTNDD PRD...MRF BLDS UPR RDG OVR WRN U.S. THRU PRD. WITH THE
EXCEPTION OF SUM LINGERING SHWRS ON FRI THE AMS THRU THE WKND AND
ERLY NXT WK WILL RMN DRY AND MILD. WILL GENLY GO ALG WITH MRF
MOS TEMP GDNC ATTM.
GARD...WFO BOULDER
.DEN...vWINTER STORM WARNING TNGT AND WED MORNING ZNS..38>45.
...WINTER STORM WARNING TNT AND WED..ZNS 30..32>34..37.
...WINTER STORM WARNING LATE TNT/WED..ZNS 46..48>50.The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
3 winter storm. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Colorado in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyWarnings in Colorado, April 2001
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5237981, 5237982, 5237983.