A late-season snow fell in parts of the Rockies, western Nebraska and western South Dakota Saturday night as part of a storm system that also spawned tornadoes across the Great Pains and Texas.
National Weather Service meteorologist Kyle Carstens said between 10 and 18 inches of snow was on the ground Sunday morning in the Black Hills. The total snowfall could reach 20 to 24 inches by the time the system moves out.
Rapid City, South Dakota, had 8 to 11 inches, accompanied by 20-30 mph winds. The National Weather Service said the conditions could become "blizzard-like" at times.
@NWSRapidCity 9 inches of snow in west #RapidCity as of 700 am. #sdwx pic.twitter.com/4eXxHXuanp— Tom A. Warner (@ztresearch) May 10, 2015
Nearly 18 inches of snow fell in southern Colorado, a state that also saw hail, flooding and tornado warnings over the weekend. The Denver Post reports certain parts of the state were under five separate weather advisories at the same time.
The storm, which emerged over the plains of eastern Colorado on Saturday, performed the unusual feat of spawning a tornado within 30 miles of a zone of heavy snow. The huge temperature contrasts helped fuel the storm, as did strong upper level winds that caused almost every thunderstorm that formed across Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska to rotate, threatening to produce tornadoes.
Tornado near Eads, CO at approximately 4:30 PM MDT. #cowx pic.twitter.com/Rsg29lE9R0— Ryan Hickman (@ryanhickman) May 9, 2015
While snow is not unusual in the Colorado foothills in April and May, the ferocity of this storm and its sprawling nature, causing the Weather Service to issue blizzard warnings in South Dakota and tornado warnings in nearby states, is relatively rare.
The Post said 8 to 10 inches fell by 9 a.m. Sunday in the foothills. Denver's Coors Field, home to the Colorado Rockies, was blanketed in snow Sunday morning.
Wow... pic.twitter.com/bygU1OnaQS— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) May 10, 2015
Meanwhile, in Parker… #cowx pic.twitter.com/RsBGAV7fij— Shawn Campbell (@shawncampbell) May 10, 2015