A storm system brought heavy snow to the mountains and foothills of the Front Range. 5 inches at Roxborough State Park.
Every event with a place to put it; 5 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 storm system brought heavy snow to the mountains and foothills of the Front Range. Storm totals included: 14 inches, 2 miles south-southeast of Breckenridge and Williams Fork Dam; 13 inches, 4 miles west-northwest of Conifer; 12.5 inches, 1 mile southeast of Breckenridge and 5 miles northeast of Ward; 11.5 inches, 4 miles east-northeast of Nederland; 10 inches, 2 miles east of Allenspark, Fairplay, 3 miles southwest of Golden and Gold Hill; 9 inches at Strontia Springs Dam; with 8.5 inches at Roxborough State Park. As the storm exited the state, heavy snow was observed in Phillips County where storm totals included: 8 inches, 4 miles southwest of Paoli; 7.5 inches, 5.6 miles east-southeast of Haxtun; with 6 inches in Holyoke.
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 12, 1:43 PM MST, 9 hours 17 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...CORRECTION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER/BOULDER CO 243 PM MDT SAT APR 12 2014 .SHORT TERM...FORECAST IS PRETTY MUCH ON TRACK. MAIN CHANGES WERE TO BACK OFF A BIT ON PRECIPITATION DURING THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING AND DELAY THE ONSET OF SNOW AT LOWER ELEVATIONS UNTIL AT LEAST MIDDAY ON SUNDAY (CHANGING FROM NORTH TO SOUTH BEHIND THE COLD PUSH). THIS DELAY IN PRECIPITATION TYPE CHANGEOVER IS BASED ON MODEL SOUNDINGS FROM 12Z RUNS AND WILL OF COURSE IMPACT TOTAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS. WITH THIS IN MIND HAVE CHANGED THE WATCH TO THE HIGHLIGHTS SHOWN BELOW. ASIDE FROM THAT THE OVERALL QG VERTICAL VELOCITIES AND FLOW PATTERNS ARE SIMILAR TO WHAT HAS BEEN THE CASE THE LAST FEW RUNS AND ARE CONSISTENT AMONGST THE MODELS...ALL POINTING TO A SIGNIFICANT PRECIPITATION EVENT FOR THE CWA AND WELCOME WATER FOR THE LOWER ELEVATIONS. .LONG TERM...STILL DEALING WITH STRONG UPPER LEVEL SYSTEM SUNDAY NIGHT WITH SLIGHT SLOWING FROM PREVIOUS FORECAST. STILL WILL HAVE HIGH POPS WITH WIDESPREAD SNOW SUNDAY EVENING OVER MUCH OF THE CWA...THEN A DECREASING TREND FROM NORTH TO SOUTH LATE SUNDAY EVENING AND OVERNIGHT. STILL COULD BE SOME HEAVY SNOW INTO SUNDAY EVENING ESPECIALLY IN THE SOUTHERN FRONT RANGE FOOTHILLS AND PALMER DIVIDE. DRY WITH A WARMING TREND MONDAY FOR LATER MONDAY AND TUESDAY AS TEMPS CLIMB BACK INTO THE 60S BY TUESDAY. THE GFS IS NOW SHOWING ANOTHER MAJOR TROF TO MOVE OVER COLORADO LATE WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY WITH ANOTHER CHANCE OF RAIN AND SNOW. HOWEVER THIS WAS A BIG CHANGE FROM YESTERDAY'S GFS RUN WITH A MORE ZONAL FLOW PATTERN. LATEST DIP/IT OF GFS SHOWING QUITE A BIT OF VARIANCE IN THE ENSEMBLE MEMBERS. THE EUROPEAN MODEL IS ALSO MUCH WEAKER WITH THIS NEXT SYSTEM. WILL KEEP THE LOW POPS FOR NOW AND WAIT FOR BETTER CONSISTENCY. DRY AGAIN BY FRIDAY AND SATURDAY WITH A WARMING TREND. && .AVIATION...THERE MAY BE A FEW SHOWERS FLOATING ABOUT THAT COULD IMPACT THE AREA TERMINALS DURING THE EVENING BUT VIRGA AND GUSTY WINDS THE MOST PROBABLE IMPACTS FROM THESE. MORE WIDESPREAD PRECIPITATION IS ANTICIPATED TO GET UNDERWAY AFTER 09Z. LIQUID PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED THROUGH AROUND MID MORNING WITH A MIXTURE OF RAIN AND SNOW THEREAFTER AND ALL SNOW EXPECTED BY EARLY AFTERNOON AS COLDER AIR ARRIVES. CEILINGS AND VISIBILITIES SHOULD BE IN THE MVFR RANGE BY 12Z WITH WORSENING CONDITIONS BY MID TO LATE MORNING. && .BOU WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FROM 6 AM SUNDAY TO MIDNIGHT MDT SUNDAY NIGHT FOR COZ030-032-037>040. WINTER STORM WARNING FROM 6 AM SUNDAY TO MIDNIGHT MDT SUNDAY NIGHT FOR COZ031-033>036-041. && SHORT TERM...ET LONG TERM....ENTREKIN AVIATION...ET
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER/BOULDER CO 1041 AM MDT SAT APR 12 2014 COZ030>051-131645- 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- 1041 AM MDT SAT APR 12 2014 ...WINTER STORM WATCH FOR THE MOUNTAINS...FRONT RANGE FOOTHILLS AND ADJACENT PLAINS LATE TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING... THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHEAST AND NORTH CENTRAL COLORADO. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT TODAY WILL BE A MILD AND GENERALLY DRY SPRINGTIME DAY. ISOLATED RAIN SHOWERS MAY DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON ALONG WITH A SMALL POSSIBILITY OF THUNDERSTORMS. PRECIPITATION ACTIVITY WILL BE ON THE INCREASE OVERNIGHT. THE PRECIPITATION MAY CHANGE OVER TO SNOW IN THE NORTHWEST SECTIONS OF FORECAST AREA BY DAY BREAK SUNDAY BUT PRESENT INDICATIONS SUGGEST THAT PRECIPITATION MAY REMAIN LIQUID ACROSS MOST OF THE AREA...INCLUDING ALL OF THE PLAINS...THROUGH THE NIGHT. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY THE NEXT STORM WILL BRING WIDESPREAD SNOW TO THE FORECAST AREA SUNDAY AND SUNDAY NIGHT. THE MOUNTAINS...FOOTHILLS AND ADJACENT PLAINS COULD SEE SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL AMOUNTS BY SUNDAY MIDNIGHT. ACROSS LOWER ELEVATIONS...THERE WILL BE A MIX OF RAIN AND SNOW SUNDAY MORNING BEFORE TURNING TO MOSTLY ALL SNOW IN THE AFTERNOON. TOTAL SNOWFALL AMOUNTS COULD RANGE FROM 6 TO 15 INCHES IN THE MOUNTAINS AND FOOTHILLS...WITH 4 TO 8 INCHES OVER THE URBAN CORRIDOR AND 5 TO 12 INCHES IN THE HIGH MOUNTAIN VALLEYS. HIGH TEMPERATURES ON SUNDAY WILL BE 30 TO 40 DEGREES COLDER THAN TODAYS EXPECTED HIGHS. MONDAY AND TUESDAY LOOK DRY. ANOTHER STORM MAY MOVE IN FOR WEDNESDAY INTO THURSDAY BRINGING A CHANCE OF SNOW TO THE MOUNTAINS...AND POSSIBLY SOME RAIN OR A RAIN SNOW MIX TO THE PLAINS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY OR TONIGHT.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
5 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Colorado in 2014Every state in 2014This day in weather historyWarnings in Colorado, April 2014
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: 512900, 512901, 512902, 512903, 512904.