Wyoming, Colorado get dumping of spring snow

[May 13, 2010]  CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- A spring storm has dropped more than 3 feet of snow in the mountains of central Wyoming, closing some highways and schools and causing scattered power outages from broken and sagging tree limbs.

In Colorado, more than a foot of snow was reported on the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park on Wednesday, and residents along the Front Range were cleaning up branches and trees weighed down by snow from the May storm.

To the east, heavy winds and wet snow in the Nebraska Panhandle combined to knock out power in the Scottsbluff area, while the National Weather Service on Wednesday posted a winter storm warning for South Dakota's Black Hills, where half a foot of snow fell in some areas.

Chad Hahn, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Cheyenne, Wyo., said the late-spring storm was the biggest he has seen in the past few years, particularly at the lower elevations in eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska.

In Denver, the Colorado Rockies' game against the Philadelphia Phillies was canceled Tuesday due to the weather, and the National Weather Service says there's a chance for more rain or snow in the Denver area each day through Saturday.

Winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories were in effect Wednesday for a large part of central Wyoming, including Casper, Riverton, Lander, Rawlins and Gillette.

Meteorologist Andy McNeel of the weather service Riverton office said snowstorms in Wyoming during May are not unusual.

"But it's always a unique event when we get a snowstorm of this caliber this time of year," McNeel said.

A 50-mile section of Interstate 80 between Cheyenne and Laramie in southeast Wyoming was closed early Wednesday but had reopened by midmorning. The National Weather Service reports that Cheyenne received about 9 inches of heavy, wet snow, closing some rural schools, snapping tree limbs and canceling outdoor events.

The highest reported snowfall in central Wyoming was 39 inches in the mountains about 15 miles south of Lander. Other mountains in northern and western Wyoming received nearly 2 feet. At lower elevations, Riverton, Lander and Jeffrey City received about a foot.

Three of Lander's top 10 record snowfalls have occurred in May, including 33.1 inches May 4-8, 1978 and 31.5 inches May 19-21, 1975.

The snowy weather was to be short-lived as forecasts called for a return to more springlike weather by Friday.

[Associated Press]

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