Snow Delays Opening at Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park
For the second day in a row, the park road at Mesa Verde National Park has opened late. Believe it or not, this is good news.
At 8:34 this morning (Tuesday, January 26) Mesa Verde National Park sent out an update via Facebook notifying visitors the park road would be closed until noon. Yesterday, the park sent out an alert notifying the public roads would not open until 9 a.m.
Last Tuesday, January 19, the park sent out this message via Facebook:
Due to snow and hazardous road conditions the park will remain closed for today.
On Saturday, January 23, the park delayed opening until 11 a.m. due to snow and winter conditions. The same thing happened on the following day, with the park delaying opening until 10 a.m.
How is any of this good news? According to the January 26 Facebook post, the multi-day storm brought much needed moisture to the area. Last year was brutal for regions in southwestern Colorado. According to yesterday's Facebook post, average precipitation at Mesa Verde is 18 inches. In 2020 the park received a total of seven inches. As you may recall, the park endured extreme drought conditions in 2020.
How about this week's storm? As of yesterday, January 25, the storm had already delivered 1.17 inches of liquid moisture.