Strong spring snowstorm hits Divide, Teller County hard Tuesday

TELLER COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) — What started as rain and wet roads on US 24 through Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs in El Paso County, turned to blizzard-like conditions southwest of Woodland Park in Teller County.

Roads quickly became slushy, then icy as wind-blown snow moved through the area late Tuesday morning and continued through the afternoon.

The dividing line between steady rain and steady snow was at an elevation of around 9,000 feet.

Brad Shaw, operations supervisor for Teller County Public Works, said that he was expecting up to a foot of snow by Wednesday morning, although there was considerable melting of snow that had already fallen.

"We'll have 18 plows on duty through the day and four overnight, he explained.

Shaw said that he was worried about plows damaging some of the county's 480 miles of gravel roads.

"It's a little different when the gravel roads have thawed out in spring," he said. "Not so big of a deal in the winter. This heavy, wet snow will make them soft and muddy. We can do more damage by pushing gravel into the ditches, versus snow."

Shaw said that his crews would closely monitor roads between Divide and Cripple Creek, which is at a slightly higher elevation of nearly 9,500 feet.

Interestingly, he mentioned that the county doesn't pre-treat its roads with salt brine before a snowfall, as El Paso County and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) do.

"We only use a sand/salt mixture," he said. "We don't feel like we need to use salt brine. We tried it before and had mixed results with it. From what we've seen, it brought in more moisture in the mornings and made the roads slick."

Shaw said that his department doesn't let spring snowstorms catch it by surprise.

"We've seen them before and we're always ready for them," he said.

Finally, Shaw revealed that his county has had similar issues as other local municipalities in retaining workers.

"At one point this winter, we were down 16 drivers," he said. "Now, we're only down six."