A winter storm brought heavy snow to parts of the North-Central Mountains, Front Range Foothills and adjacent plains. 5 inches near Loveland, and 6 inches at Greeley and Severence.
Every event with a place to put it; 8 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
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 winter storm brought heavy snow to parts of the North-Central Mountains, Front Range Foothills and adjacent plains. Storm totals included: 15 inches at Jamestown, 13 inches, 3 miles north of Blackhawk, 12 inches just east of Buckhorn Mountain, 11 inches, 7 miles southwest of Boulder and 4 miles east of Nederland, 10.5 inches at Gross Reservoir, 11 miles southwest of Livermore and at Wellington, 10 inches, 7 miles east of Allenspark, 9.5 inches near of Eldorado Springs and at Horsetooth Inlet Bay, 9 inches at Roxborough State Park, 8.5 inches, 3 miles southwest of Longmont, 8 inches in Boulder and at Hourglass Reservoir, 7.5 inches at Centenniel and 2 miles north of Longmont, 7 inches in Fort Collins, Louisville and 9 miles west-southwest of Rustic, 6.5 inches near Loveland, and 6 inches at Greeley and Severence.
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 Mar 12, 3:20 PM MST, 8 hours 40 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO 320 PM MST SAT MAR 12 2005 .SHORT TERM...INITIAL COLD FRONT MOVED ACROSS NORTHEAST COLORADO EARLIER THIS MORNING WITH A GUSTY WIND SHIFT TO THE NORTHEAST. DEW POINTS ROSE TO THE MID 20S AFTER FROPA...BUT THE AIRMASS STILL APPEARS QUITE DRY. HOWEVER...MODEL DIAGNOSTIC PRODUCTS SHOW THAT THE AIRMASS IS UNDERGOING SYNOPTIC LIFT THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. UPPER LEVEL TROUGH WILL REMAIN OVER COLORADO TONIGHT WITH NORTHEAST COLORADO LYING UNDER THE RIGHT ENTRANCE REGION OF THE UPPER JET THIS EVENING. DIVERGENCE OF Q-VECTORS SHOW LIFT CONTINUING THROUGH THE NIGHT. THIS SET UP IS A FAVORABLE ONE FOR A BANDED PRECIPITATION EPISODE. THOUGH UPSLOPE FLOW WILL BE PRESENT TONIGHT...THE SYNOPTIC DYNAMICS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS SYSTEM MAY HAVE AS MUCH IMPACT AS THE UPSLOPE WINDS. FOR THAT REASON...THE FOOTHILLS WILL NOT NECESSARILY RECEIVE MUCH MORE SNOW THAN LOCATIONS ON THE PLAINS. WILL STICK WITH THE SNOW ADVISORIES THAT ARE ALREADY IN EFFECT. DYNAMICS WILL BE MOVING OUT OF THE STATE LATE SUNDAY MORNING...SO PRECIPITATION EVENT SHOULD BE WINDING DOWN ON THE PLAINS BY MIDDAY. COLD TEMPERATURES WILL BE THE OTHER STORY...WITH HIGHS ON THE PLAINS ONLY IN THE 30S. .LONG TERM...SUN NGT-TUE...MDLS MAINTAIN NWLY FLO ALF ACRS CNTRL RCKYS WITH A COUPLE OF STG SHT WVS EMBEDDED IN FLO. FIRST SYS EXITS AREA SUN NGT AND AIR MASS WILL RMN GENLY DRY UNTIL PCPN WITH NEXT SHT WV STARTS ON MON NGT AND CONTS THRU MST OF TUE. WILL LEAVE SUM LINGERING OROGRAPHIC SCT SNW SHWRS MTNS ON SUN NGT AND MON. WILL ALSO KEEP ISOLD SNW SHWRS OVR NRN URBAN CORRIDOR ON MON AFTN IN ADV OF NEXT SURGE. STG DYNAMICS AND UPWARD Q-G OMEGA WITH 2ND SYS WHICH ALG WITH LO LVL UPSLP FLO WILL PRODUCE SUM SNW. WILL KEEP BEST POPS AND PCPN IN MTNS AND OVR AND NR HIR TRRN WITH LESSER POPS OVR PLAINS. ETA IS STRONGER AND HAS MORE PCPN THAN NORMALLY WET GFS. HAD POPS BEEN HIR WITH GFS WUD HAVE GONE WITH HIR ETA POPS IN FCST. ONLY MAJOR DIFFERECE IN UPR AIR PATTERN APPRS TO BE SHARPER TROF WITH GFS. WILL TREND TEMPS TWD THE COOLER GFS MOS TEMP GUIDANCE. IN EXTENDED PRD...WED-SAT...MDLS MAINTAIN BLOCKING PATTERN OVR THE PACIFIC BUT DIFFER ON DETAILS OF SYSTEMS OVR WRN U.S. TODAYS GFS VRY SIMILAR TO YSTRDYS ECMWF WHILE CURRENT ECMWF SHWS MORE TROFINESS OVR CNTRL RCKYS TDA THAN YSTRDY. DUE TO THIS UNCERTAINTY WILL NOT MAKE ANY SIGNIFICANT CHANGES TO CURRENT FCST. WILL KEEP WED THRU SAT DRY WHICH IS CONSISTENT WITH GFS ENSEMBLE MOS POPS WHICH ARE BLO CLIMO. TEMPS WILL GRADUALLY WARM TO SEASONAL NORMS BY SAT. && .BOU WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT THROUGH NOON SUNDAY...ZNS 35..36..39..40 AND 41. && KDRBY/GARD...WFO BOULDER
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO 1057 AM MST SAT MAR 12 2005 COZ030>051-131300- JACKSON COUNTY BELOW 9000 FEET-WEST JACKSON AND WEST GRAND COUNTIES ABOVE 9000 FEET-GRAND AND SUMMIT COUNTIES BELOW 9000 FEET-SOUTH AND EAST JACKSON/LARIMER/NORTH AND NORTHEAST GRAND/ NORTHWEST BOULDER COUNTIES ABOVE 9000 FEET-SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST GRAND/WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST BOULDER/GILPIN/CLEAR CREEK/ SUMMIT/NORTH AND WEST PARK COUNTIES ABOVE 9000 FEET-LARIMER AND BOULDER COUNTIES BETWEEN 6000 AND 9000 FEET-JEFFERSON AND WEST DOUGLAS COUNTIES ABOVE 6000 FEET/GILPIN/CLEAR CREEK/NORTHEAST PARK COUNTIES BELOW 9000 FEET-CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST PARK COUNTY-LARIMER COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/NORTHWEST WELD COUNTY-BOULDER AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES BELOW 6000 FEET/WEST BROOMFIELD COUNTY-NORTH DOUGLAS COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/DENVER/WEST ADAMS AND ARAPAHOE COUNTIES/ EAST BROOMFIELD COUNTY-ELBERT/CENTRAL AND EAST DOUGLAS COUNTIES ABOVE 6000 FEET-NORTHEAST WELD COUNTY-CENTRAL AND SOUTH WELD COUNTY-MORGAN COUNTY-CENTRAL AND EAST ADAMS AND ARAPAHOE COUNTIES- NORTH AND NORTHEAST ELBERT COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/NORTH LINCOLN COUNTY-SOUTHEAST ELBERT COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/SOUTH LINCOLN COUNTY-LOGAN COUNTY-WASHINGTON COUNTY-SEDGWICK COUNTY-PHILLIPS COUNTY- 1057 AM MST SAT MAR 12 2005 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHEAST AND NORTH CENTRAL COLORADO. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT NORTH WINDS AT 20 TO 35 MPH ACROSS THE PLAINS WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON WITH TEMPERATURES FALLING INTO THE MID AND UPPER 40S FROM LATE MORNING HIGHS IN THE UPPER 50S AND LOWER 60S. AREAS OF BLOWING DUST MAY CAUSE SOME RESTRICTED VISIBILITIES EARLY IN THE AFTERNOON. LATER THIS EVENING...AS UPSLOPE WINDS CONTINUE AND THE AIRMASS OVER NORTHERN COLORADO BECOMES MOIST...SNOW IS EXPECTED TO BECOME WIDESPREAD AND BEGIN ACCUMULATING. WINTER WEATHER ADVISORIES ARE IN EFFECT FOR THE FRONT RANGE FOOTHILLS AND THE DENVER METRO AREA FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY MORNING. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 4 TO 8 INCHES ARE EXPECTED IN THE FOOTHILLS AND OVER THE WESTERN PALMER DIVIDE. ACCUMULATIONS OF 3 TO 6 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE IN THE DENVER METRO AREA. ACCUMULATIONS OF 2 TO 4 INCHES ARE EXPECTED ACROSS THE PLAINS TO THE NORTH AND EAST OF DENVER. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY A COUPLE OF WEATHER DISTURBANCES WILL SPREAD SNOW ACROSS THE AREA THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT. THE FIRST SYSTEM WILL BE EXITING EASTERN COLORADO SUNDAY AFTERNOON WITH THE SNOW ENDING. A SECOND SYSTEM ON MONDAY NIGHT INTO TUESDAY NIGHT WILL HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE ADDITIONAL SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL ACROSS THE AREA. THERE WILL BE SOME LINGERING SNOW SHOWERS IN THE MOUNTAINS ON WEDNESDAY. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY OR TONIGHT. DANKERS/GARD...WFO BOULDER
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
8 winter storm. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Colorado in 2005Every state in 2005This day in weather historyWarnings in Colorado, March 2005
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: 5444593, 5444594, 5444595, 5444596, 5444599, 5444600, 5444597, 5444598.