Denver Having a Snow Drought

My son reports that there has been hardly any snow at all in Denver so far thisseason. That is confirmed by the airport's total of 1.5 inches. That is a farcry from last year when there was a generous 38 inches of snow by thistime.Here is the reason it hasn't been snowing in Denver this season. It all has todo with the wind direction. As of yet, there has not been a storm withnortheast winds. A northeasterly wind creates an upslope flow into Denver andthe nearby foothills, and voila, it snows.

Since late October, plenty of fronts have crossed the West, but all thosesystems dumped their snow in the mountains where the ski areas are. Coming outof the mountains, the air descends into Denver. This downsloping flow dries outthe air, and snow simply does not happen.

Things are about to change, though. Thursday and Thursday evening a stormpassing through southern Colorado could bring Denver a substantial snowfall ofthe season perhaps as much as 5 or 6 inches.

Story by AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist John Kocet.