DENVER — Highways closed by drifting snow in southeast Colorado were reopened Saturday.
The snow storm that stretched from the Front Range to the Eastern Plains on Thursday dumped up to a foot of snow in parts of eastern Colorado. High winds whipped snow into tall drifts and cut visibility to near zero, keeping some highways closed until midmorning Saturday.
Mike Murray of the Colorado Department of Transportation said U.S. 287 from Lamar to the Oklahoma line was reopened.
Other highways reopened were U.S. 160 from Springfield to the Kansas line and Colorado 109 from La Junta to Kim.
The storm moved east, where parts of Kansas were buried by more than 2 feet of snow and power was knocked out to at least 17,000 homes and businesses. Heavy snow also fell in parts of Oklahoma.
Farmers along the Front Range were glad to see the moisture, although the timing wasn’t as good for ranchers on the eastern plains. Their herds are in the midst of calving.
“These spring snows and rain are much better for us than the December ones,” said Eldon Ackerman, owner of Ackerman Farms in Wellington.
Ackerman told KUSA-TV in Denver that 8 inches of snow fell in the area.
Norman Dalsted, an agriculture expert with Colorado State University, said the storm is helpful, but won’t make up for the dry winter.
“Ideal would be to get about an inch of moisture every 10 days or so for the next 60 days,” Dalsted said.
Farmers in western Colorado just wanted the freezing temperatures to go away. Carol Zadrozny and Richard Skaer, owners of Z’s Orchard on East Orchard Mesa, lost nearly all their apricot crop despite lighting smudge pots to heat the orchards.
Richard Mowrer of Mesa View Orchard and Bob Helmer of Alida’s Fruits also lost their apricots. They told The Daily Sentinel that they believed the peaches would sustain only minimal damage.
“It may damage the leader blossoms, the ones already in bloom, but the rest should be OK,” Skaer said about the peaches.
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Information from: The Daily Sentinel,
