An Englewood home caught on fire after it was struck by lightning during an electrically charged snowstorm that experts say is unusual this early in winter.
A gas meter at the home at 3329 S. Pennsylvania St. was hit by lightning at 9:35 p.m. Friday and burst into flames, said Brad Johnson, a spokesman for the Englewood Police Department.
Firefighters put out the small fire quickly, and no one was injured, Johnson said.
Electric storms combined with snow are not unheard of but they normally happen at the end of winter or beginning of spring, said Scott Entrekin, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Boulder.
“It’s rare this early in the winter,” Entrekin said.
A band of cold air on top of warmer air caused unsteady atmospheric conditions, he said. Thunder and lightning are also often obscured by thick snow clouds.
The snow was just the latest of a steady succession of storms this winter.
Steamboat Springs got about a foot of new snow overnight, while south metro towns got 1 to 2 inches of snow, Entrekin said. Five inches of snow fell on Simla last night.
“It’s been one system after the other, and moisture keeps piling up in the mountains,” Entrekin said.
More light snow is expected this afternoon in the Denver metro area, where up to an inch could fall, and in the mountains, where a couple inches may fall, he said.
Temperatures dropped to about 10 degrees in the metro area last night and are expected to rise to 40 degrees today and tomorrow, Entrekin said.
Another storm system will bring another round of snowfall Sunday evening and Monday, he said.
Despite the persistent snow showers this year, mountain roads are in relatively good shape, said Mark Aultman, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Transportation.
“For most people their drive in the mountains will be fairly good,” Aultman said.
The Colorado State Patrol noted only a few accidents, mostly in the mountains, but not major collisions because of the weather, CSP spokesman Trooper Ryan Sullivan said.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
