Naturally we've been paying very close attention to the weather over the past week. We mainly relied on the Weather Channel app to make our decision to head to Estes Park a few days early. Once we made it here, we've paid more attention to the local Denver TV stations. Like the Weather Channel, the local meteorologists had built the storm up to be somewhere between a "major event" and an apocalyptical snow storm. Not every snow storm earns a name but this one did. It was named Xylia and the action was expected to begin as early as Friday night, build in intensity on Saturday and carry into Sunday.
Friday night there were a few flurries. Saturday morning the flurries continued but the build up in intensity as the day went on just didn't happen. The local meteorologists were starting to take a beating on line much like what happens to their colleagues in Florida do when a hurricane unexpectedly weakens or turns. Finally on Saturday night it started snowing harder. Although there were a few breaks in the action overnight (Beth would check periodically), there was plenty of snow on the ground when we woke up this morning. It continued to snow pretty heavily during the morning hours into the afternoon. It's around 3:00 PM now and while it's tapered off some, it's still coming down. According to the latest updates the snow will continue into tonight. So far we've had about 20 inches of snowfall (accurately measured on a picnic table with a broomstick and a 8.5 X 11 sheet of paper) . Not quite the four feet that was predicted, but certainly enough for the local weather predictors to regain credibility.
Our favorite local meteorologist is a young man named Cory Reppenhagen on the Denver NBC affiliate. Cory has been reporting live from Estes Park since yesterday morning. His delivery style is a mix of laid back, witty, cynical, sarcastic and funny all rolled into one. He seemed a little down in the dumps yesterday afternoon as he started to doubt the much needed drought busting snowfall would come. This morning his shoulders were back, his chin up and he had a joyous glimmer in his eyes. He said Saturday was "lame" but that today was really making up for it. We're 100% in agreement with you Cory!
Monday Morning Update- The snow has stopped and the totals from Winter Storm Xylia are impressive:
Estes Park-22 Inches Downtown Denver-19 Inches (4th largest in Denver History) Denver International Airport-27 Inches (The airport closed Sunday morning and is not scheduled to reopen until Monday afternoon at 2:00. There were over 2,000 flights canceled) Fort Collins-24 Inches
A few pictures from this morning:
