Snowstorm complicates another evening commute

Cars creep through the intersection at 5th and Wadsworth as Wednesday's storm hits.

LAKEWOOD – Commuters cursed their luck Wednesday as they tried to maneuver through near whiteout conditions for the fourth time in a week as snow, sleet, gusting wind, thunder and lightning moved in at 4 p.m.

The National Weather Service posted a winter storm advisory through 9 p.m. for the Front Range foothills and the metro area. The forecast calls for 3 to 7 inches of snow before the storm leaves the area tonight.

Periods of heavy snow accompanied by sustained winds of 20-30 mph with gusts up to 40 developed as the storm made its way from north to south across Lakewood.

“The timing of the storm will likely make for hazardous driving conditions around rush hour,” the weather service said.

That prediction was right on the mark. Snow and sleet quickly covered Lakewood streets, highways and roads as the rush hour started. Visibility in central Lakewood dropped to 50 yards or less in a matter of minutes.

The storm is the third to roll across Lakewood in seven days.

Parts of Lakewood have seen nearly 14 inches of snow in the past week, and more may be on the way.

The weather service is keeping an eye on a developing storm system expected to hit north central and northeast Colorado Friday night and Saturday, bringing the “potential to produce strong winds, possibly heavy snowfall and considerable blowing and drifting snow,” according to the Hazardous Weather Outlook advisory.

The advisory cautions that the track and intensity of the weekend storm system is uncertain.

Weather observers say the 2008-2009 storm season is one of the driest on record. In the 10 months before last week’s blizzard, precipitation in the metro area was 22.7 inches below normal. The June through February normal is 39.6 inches. This year the June-February total was 16.9 inches, according to Weather Service Records.

The moisture storms have dropped in the past week provides at least a temporary break from the season-long dry conditions that had left much of the area prone to wildfire.

“It’s absolutely changed it. It changed it for the short run, if not the long run,” said Jacki Kelley, spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

   “We are going to have to have quite a bit more moisture for us to feel it has put a dent in the fire season,” Kelley said.

  Rocco Snart, the sheriff’s Fire Management Officer, said temporary relief is about all that can be expected unless snow and rain and cool temperatures stick around for a spell.

    “A lot of that depends on how quickly it dries out.  If we continue to see the cooler temperatures and things like that, I think its going to help us out some,” Snart said.

   “It’s going to take quite a while for the heavier fuels, the larger fuels, to get hold of any of this moisture.”