Residents work to clear broken tree branches following May snowstorm

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]This is a live look at DIA right now.

[00:00:02]You pretty much can't tell that it snowed at all. The snow may be gone, but the impacts are not. Thanks for joining us at 8:00. I'm Cory Rose.

[00:00:09]>> And I'm Sam Schocker, and for Drew Carney, that storm left a lot of damage, mostly to the trees. Around this time yesterday, we got these images from our very own Keely Chalmers. So, Keely woke up to her neighbor's tree resting on her roof in Boulder.

[00:00:23]>> Oh, no. Keely, you spent a lot of time shaking snow from branches. Yesterday, we saw your Back today, but now the name of the game is cleaning the branches, right?

[00:00:36]Oh, yeah, no question. I mean, the temperatures here quite mild. It is actually a gorgeous start to your Thursday, very different than yesterday.

[00:00:46]But yes, we're feeling the effects of those 11-plus inches of snow that fell here in Boulder.

[00:00:53]Uh heavy, wet snow that again brought down branches of all sizes. We're talking about small branches, big branches like this one laying on the uh fence here. In fact, in some cases, entire trees, smaller trees, were snapped in half because of that snow.

[00:01:10]So, no question, today will all be all about cleaning up those branches. But again, you know, we need that moisture. This is fantastic news to get all this rain and snow. They are welcome events. We need all the moisture we can get for the Front Range mountains and the plains. The 2-day precipitation totaled over an inch. Now, that is a lot of precipitation. The issue, our snowpack and water deficits are significant. While the recent precipitation definitely puts a dent in the drought, all those record-setting high temperatures and the unusually dry weather we've had over the last several months have taken a toll on our soils, even with this appreciated late season addition to the mountain snowpack. We are still far from even normal when it comes to moisture levels. In fact, our snowpack is still around 22% of average. Even with the 1 plus inch we got this week, we're still behind. The Colorado Climate Center also points out that not everyone in Colorado saw the kind of rain and snow we got near Denver. The moisture was limited in southwest and southeast Colorado. So, yes, the snow we got yesterday and the rain the day before certainly welcome.

[00:02:24]We love to see that. It will put a dent in the drought, but we still have a long way to go. And of course, I do want to point out we've been talking about this throughout the show that a little bit of a breeze today, not bad. It actually seems to be calming down, but we did feel some strong wind gusts earlier.

[00:02:42]Could be feeling a little bit of a gust throughout the afternoon and some of those compromised branches still could come down. So, just be on the lookout for that. But again, temperatures feeling fantastic, really warming up.

[00:02:57]Let's send it over to Katie in the studio for a look at just how warm we're going to get today.

[00:03:01]>> Uh Keely, good morning to you. The freeze warning has expired from Denver to Boulder across the northeastern plains.