Forecast calls for warmer, drier week

Ducks glide across Balsam Pond during Saturday's lightly falling snow.

LAKEWOOD – A chilly but cool Sunday is in store for the metro area after what was expected to be an intense spring storm fizzled, saving its punch for the eastern Plains, where some roads remained closed because of blowing snow.

Still, the National Weather Service kept a “slight” chance snow showers in the forecast through the afternoon, predicting temperatures highs in the upper 30s and a low tonight near 20.

The week’s outlook calls for a 20 percent chance of rain and snow showers Wednesday, but milder weather with high temperatures from the low 50s to 60 degrees through the week.

The weekend’s storm system, robbed of much of its punch by a pool of dry air hovering over the metro area, was the fourth storm to hit Lakewood in eight days.

Parts of the city have seen nearly 14 inches of snow in the past 10 days.

That moisture is badly needed. 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 from the recent storms 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 it’s 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.”