Snow possible late today

Bianca Prieto, Rocky Mountain News

Monday, April 24, 2006

Colorado's ever-changing spring weather hit downtown Denver on Sunday evening in the form of hail up to the size of a quarter, triggering a severe-thunderstorm warning for Denver and Adams County from the National Weather Service.

The storm passed quickly through the metro area and headed northeast to Yuma and Washington counties, where more hail was reported and severe-thunderstorm warnings were in place until early this morning. As much as an inch of rain fell in some places in Washington County, meteorologist Kyle Fredin said.

A cold front expected to roll into Colorado overnight brought the hail and is expected to send a few snowflakes into Denver early today and tonight, with 2 to 6 inches in the mountains.

"This is pretty normal, but we haven't seen it in a while since it's been pretty dry," Fredin said. "Hopefully, if this pans out, it could get us a quarter-inch of moisture."

Since January, only 1.34 inches of moisture have been measured at Denver International Airport, compared with 3.71 inches by this time in an average year.

"We are dry in the Plains, but the good thing is that these spring rains can bring up that total pretty rapidly," Fredin said.

The temperature in Denver reached 80 Sunday, but the mercury was expected to plummet into the low 40s overnight. Today's chilly high in Denver should reach only the upper 30s, the National Weather Service said.