We woke up to a surprise 8″ snow storm this morning!  The forecast was only for a few inches of snow overnight but the “Monarch Cloud” delivered!  Sometimes these intense bands of moisture can overproduce when they hit our high elevation along the Continental Divide.  These types of events can linger on the ridgeline and continue to squeeze moisture from the storm for hours longer than what was originally modeled by the weather forecasters.  The storm continued with intense snowfall rates until mid-day with around another 4″ of additional snow.  After a long and dry December, the New Year is off to a very good start.