most snowed on towns in colorado? (Denver, Leadville: live in, areas, locations)

[njstinks0622]

Which towns get the most snow? Or what region?

[jazzlover]

For the hundredth time, people can go to Weatherbase and research just about any location in the country. I don't know why the Moderator doesn't make that a "sticky"--people ask similar climate questions constantly.

The short answer is--the mountain areas get the snow, the lower elevation areas (where most Coloradans live) generally do not get that much. Many areas of Colorado get less snow than most locations in the Midwest and East. In winter, outside of the mountain areas, the predominant color is BROWN. Most lower elevation areas do not have snow on the ground for any real appreciable time in most winters--another thing those folks at the Chamber of Commerce won't tell you. Even some areas along the Front Range (Denver, etc.) that get seemingly moderate snow totals for the season (40-60") do not have snow on the ground that often--it usually snows and then melts completely off within a few days.

[FoRuMRideR420]

dont mind jazz he has sand in his v****a ^^^


towns that are above 9000ft+ in elevation will be the most snow......southwest colorado gets hammered

[esya]

Jazzlover, I also like the sites that talk about climate, not weather. That gives you better overall data longterm. As far as "snowed in" I would nominate Silverton because if the roads close, you are truly snowed in.

[wanneroo]

I think wolf creek pass gets close to 600 inches in a normal year. That's the highest i know of.

[DOUBLE H]

Esya and wanneroo are both right. Silverton got up to nine feet of snow stacked up there by the end of last February. Wolf Creek Pass peaked at 168 inches, or thereabouts. YIKES!!

[Ticky909]

Yea the area around wolf creek pass, georgetown has the potential to get smothered with snow as well. Not sure about which specific mountain range is snowiest. maybe the skeleton range WooOOoo OooOoOO og

[Gretchen B]

What about Leadville? I always think of that town as being buried in snow in the winter.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by FoRuMRideR420

dont mind jazz he has sand in his v****a ^^^


towns that are above 9000ft+ in elevation will be the most snow......southwest colorado gets hammered

I don't have one to get sand in, so there.

As to southwest Colorado, I've probably spent more time there than you have (say, 30 yrs. plus knocking around that region very regularly). Southwest Colorado does get a lot of snow in the higher elevation on average. If one looks at the long-term records, though, one finds the annual snowfall to be extremely variable from year-to-year--often varying by 50% or more. So, one winter may see a place like Silverton get a couple hundred inches of snow or more, the next only 50 or 60.

Once again, though, not that many people as a percentage of Colorado population live in those high snowfall areas--and the way Colorado's BS recreation/ski economy is about to get its *** handed to it, I suspect pretty soon there will be considerably fewer.

[Ticky909]

Yes, the southern rockies are subject more than other regions to variations in many different areas, since it doesn't really have the regulatory effect of the pacific ocean that the Northern reaches of the rockies get, or the arctic air masses that the yukon and BC and AB rockies get. El Nino and La Nina have large effects on this part of the rockies, and the conditions that usually lead to big snowfall numbers as a result in these areas vary greatly from year to year and condition to condition.