By the numbers: Colorado cold snap lives up to its brutally frigid forecast

Miles Blumhardt, Fort Collins Coloradoan
·4 min read
70

The highly publicized arctic cold front that slammed into Colorado late Wednesday afternoon is living up to its brutally frigid and snowy forecast.

And while the snow, impressive in some areas given how cold it was, is over, the frigid temperatures and wind chills will stick around until Friday afternoon.

The temperature in west Fort Collins dropped 40.8 degrees in 30 minutes and 42.3 degrees in an hour late Wednesday, the largest temperature drop the area has seen since at least 1997, according to Russ Schumacher, state climatologist and director of the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University.

As the weather worsened, state transportation and safety officials closed numerous roads overnight, including all major routes between Colorado's Front Range and Wyoming.

The temperature at Denver International Airport briefly dropped to minus-24 Thursday morning, just shy of meeting the monthly record set in 1990. With temperatures recently trending "warmer," there's a good chance this will be the final lowest temperature recorded from the storm.

Still, the storm caused innumerable headaches for travelers, as there were 514 flight cancellations into or out of DIA by midday Thursday, with another 423 flights delayed, according to FlightAware.

And for thousands of residents across Colorado, sporadic electricity outages added an extra layer of unease amid the frigid temperatures.

Poudre Valley REA reported via Twitter early Thursday a power outage impacting about 6,700 members in the Windsor, Severance and west Greeley area. That outage was addressed by 8 a.m., while an outage impacting 489 Xcel Energy customers in Johnstown lingered to midday.

Fort Collins can expect a frigid Friday with a daytime high temperature rising to 14 degrees before a warming trend brings daytime highs into the 40s over the weekend and 50s by early next week.

A Windsor, Colo., resident blows snow from a sidewalk Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022, during bitterly cold temperatures. The area received 2 to 4 inches of snow.
A Windsor, Colo., resident blows snow from a sidewalk Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022, during bitterly cold temperatures. The area received 2 to 4 inches of snow.

Cold and snow impacts will be felt Thursday into Friday

Here are impacts from the storm, according to the National Weather Service:

Interstate 25 urban corridor: Extreme wind chills of minus-25 degrees to minus-40 degrees until 6 p.m. Thursday, then dropping to significant winter weather conditions through 6 p.m. Friday

Northeastern plains: Extreme wind chills of minus-30 degrees to minus-60 degrees until 6 p.m. Thursday, then dropping to significant conditions through 6 p.m. Friday

Foothills: Extreme wind chills of minus-15 degrees to minus-35 degrees through 6 p.m. Friday

Mountains/mountain valleys: Extreme wind chills of minus-15 degrees to minus-45 degrees through 6 p.m. Friday

Highest wind chill values for Fort Collins area

The northeast plains have seen the worst wind chill values with a station near Ovid in Sedgwick County reporting a wind chill of minus-54 .Here are the coldest wind chill values for the Fort Collins area through Thursday morning, according to the National Weather Service:

Virginia Dale: Minus-51 degrees

Buckeye: Minus-42 degrees

Greeley: Minus-41 degrees

I-25/Crossroads Boulevard: Minus-40 degrees

Livermore: Minus -38 degrees

Estes Park: Minus-36 degrees

Fort Collins: Minus-34 degrees

Loveland: Minus-32 degrees

Wellington: Minus-32 degrees

Severance: Minus-32 degrees

Timnath: minus-30 degrees

Red Feather Lakes: Minus-28 degrees

Fort Collins (CSU campus): Minus-26 degrees

Here are snowfall totals for Fort Collins, surrounding areas and statewide

According to the National Weather Service and Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network:

Fort Collins area

Gould (10.1 miles south-southeast: 10.1 inches

Cameron Pass (9 miles south-southeast): 8.7 inches

Cameron Pass (6 miles east): 8.7 inches

Estes Park (1.7 miles west): 4.9 inches

Loveland (2.5 miles west): 4.5 inches

Cameron Pass (1 mile north-northwest): 4.3 inches

Berthoud (4.4 miles west-southwest): 4.2 inches

Bellvue (5 miles west): 4 inches

Windsor (3.8 miles southwest): 3.8 inches

Loveland (3.8 miles south): 3.8 inches

Fort Collins (2.4 miles east-southeast): 3.2 inches

Fort Collins (4.9 miles north): 3 inches

Greeley: 3 inches

Timnath (4.1 miles east-northeast): 2.8 inches

Fort Collins (2.8 miles west): 2.5 inches

Wellington (0.4 miles northwest): 2 inches

Fort Collins (0.7 miles south-southwest): 1.8 inches

Poudre Park: 1.5 inches

Statewide

Eldora: 13 inches

Boulder (1.5 miles north-northwest): 8 inches

Arvada (1 mile east-northeast): 7.2 inches

Boulder (3 miles south-southwest): 6 inches

Longmont: (0.4 miles west): 6 inches

Louisville ( 1 mile north-northwest): 5.8 inches

Broomfield (1 mile northwest) 5.5 inches

Frederick (2 miles northwest): 5.5 inches

Denver (2.1 miles east-northeast) 4.3 inches

DIA: 3.9 inches

Vail (0.9 miles west-northwest): 3.6 inches

Lakewood (1.7 miles southwest): 3.5 inches

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado cold snap lives up to its brutally frigid forecast