The trip back from Colorado provided a nice illustration of how low-level winds winds interact with terrain gradients to enhance, or diminish, precipitation..
In Loveland there was about 2 inches of heavy wet snow on the far west side of town as we left the motel. By the east side of town at I-25 there was no snow cover. However, heading upslope toward Denver snow cover increased to 2 to 3 inches, and reached a maximum of around 6 to 7 inches up on Monument Hill. Heading down into Colorado Springs amounts on ground decreased to nothing by the south side of the city. From there to past Pueblo there was no snow cover. But going south, and up hill out of Pueblo snow amounts on ground increased slowly and atop Raton Pass there was again 6 to 7 inches of snow with slush on I-25. There was no snow down in Raton, NM, and snow cover reappeared only along the mountainous stretch from Las Vegas to Santa Fe. After Santa Fe, there was only snow cover visible on the highest mountain tops.
Interestingly, the mountains of southeastern Arizona all had a fair amount of snow cover at high elevations. The March 1st storm had produced amounts of 2 inches of liquid wate, and a bit higher in places, south and east of Tucson. Here at house we had only 0.41" and the Rincons and Catalinas appeared mostly bare from I-10. The visible satellite image above is from 1 pm MST yesterday, the 9th. It appears to show snow cover that fits with the descriptions above, however, without I-25 superposed it is subject to interpretation.
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