High country gets first snow

By Charles Ashby
Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Grand Mesa and other parts of the high country saw the first snow of the season early Monday, but it didn’t last.

A small high-altitude disturbance came through the region, but wasn’t expected to be carrying much moisture. So Grand Junction Weather Service meteorologists were surprised to learn it left up to an inch of snow at higher elevations along the Interstate 70 corridor, said senior forecaster Tom Renwick.

“When I first looked at this coming a couple of days ago, we thought there’s nothing here,” Renwick said. “So we were a little surprised ourselves. We expected sprinkles.”

Grand Mesa received about a half-inch of the white stuff, said Mike Wenner, owner of Grand Mesa Lodge, 25861 Colorado Highway 65.

Wenner said conditions were near white-out for an hour and a half,  starting about 9 a.m.

The half-inch of snow stayed only briefly on the lodge’s deck, he said.

“Then it was blue skies and it all melted very quickly,” Wenner said. “But we had our first snow up here.”