A short-lived snow shower moved through the Denver metro area on Wednesday evening. While that snow shower didn’t produce much in the way of actual accumulation – most areas in the immediate Denver metro area only saw a coating of wet snow – it did produce some unusually large snow flakes.
Here are a few scenes from Wednesday’s snow across the metro area:
great fat flakes downtown right now!
— Bryce (he/him) (@Bryce_Chandler)
What is that white stuff falling from the sky!? Hey there ! It's been so long!
— Joel Hansen (@JHansenWX)
Monster flakes, starting to stick to grassy surfaces. Highlands neighborhood in Denver.
— Chris Bianchi (@BianchiWeather)
Those flakes didn’t last all that long, perhaps 20 or 30 minutes in most cases. But they were quite the sight, if only for a short time.
The key behind the size of Wednesday’s snowflakes came down to two things: relatively mild temperatures and a burst of moisture.
Temperatures in the Denver area were right around 32 degrees, if not a tick higher as the snow first started. Because the temperature was right at the freezing mark, it led to a partial melting of the snowflake. That created a sticky ring of liquid around the edge of the snowflake, and that helped glue together other flakes. The flakes stuck together, creating the wider individual flakes.
In addition to the mild temperatures – typically the main driver of the size of a snowflake – a shower-like burst of moisture created an essential downpour of snowfall as well. With the mild temperatures helping glue together the snow, the simple addition of more moisture created more actual snow to fall.
While it didn’t last all that long, Wednesday night’s snow was (briefly) quite the spectacle across much of the metro Denver area. You can thank mild temperatures (at least for snow) and a cold front-induced burst of energy for it.
