Thaw sets in after two-day storm rolls out
Residents continued digging out after the severe autumn storm gave way to sunshine Friday.
LAKEWOOD – An ice glaze slowed Friday morning’s commute, but the city began recovering from a powerful autumn storm that left as much as 21 inches of snow in it’s wake.
Schools and businesses re-opened and residents continued digging out and removing limbs and braches broken by the heavy snow-load.
National Weather Service forecasters replaced the winter storm warning posted early Wednesday, replacing it with a hazardous weather advisory cautioning that winds up to 40 mph could develop along the Front Range and warned that wind-blown snow could prompt road closures in northern Jefferson County.
A stretch of Colo. 93 remained closed just south of Boulder at mid-morning Friday, but no other Jeffco closures were reported.
Most roads into and out of the metro area reopened early Friday, but Interstate 25 northbound remained closed from Wellington to the Wyoming state line because of limited visibility and icy stretches of pavement.
Some icy spots complicated travel in Lakewood, leading to some fender-benders, but streets were in good shape overall and no major accidents had been reported as of Friday morning, said Steve Davis, Lakewood Police Department spokesman.
Lakewood has been on accident alert for three days.
“That snow wasn’t quite like getting that much in January,” Davis said. “It melted rather quickly, it was easy to plow and the main roads never really had that much snow on them that I saw. It was slick, but it sure wasn’t deep.”
“It’s gone pretty well” Jay Hutchison, Lakewood’s Public Works director, said. “We did bring in some contract motor-graders and we were able to get to all of the residential streets as well as the priority routes” by Thursday afternoon.
Jefferson County schools and Red Rocks Community College reopened Friday after a two-day snow holiday and city and county government returned to full staffing.
High school sports cancelled by the heavy snow, including the first round of the 5A Boys Varsity soccer matches, are being rescheduled. Check the Jeffco School District web site for the latest schedules.
The Weather Service forecast issued just before noon Friday calls for westerly winds gusting to 20 mph in Lakewood and the western suburbs with a high in the mid-40s as the sun pushes through the diminishing cloud cover. Tonight’s low is expected to drop to 30 and a high in the mid-40s under mostly sunny skies Saturday.
