Pronghorn herds dying by the dozen on eastern Colorado roads after snowstorm
tribune news service via msn
www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/pronghorn-herds-dying-by-the-dozen-on-eastern-colorado-roads-after-snowstorm/ar-AA1tY5jx?ocid=mailsignout
Pronghorn are being hit by drivers in droves as they seek refuge from snow-covered fields, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials. The southeast state wildlife office said more than 100 of the animals had been killed on roads this week and the northeast office said 52 had been killed Tuesday morning alone.
The wildlife office for northeastern Colorado said all 52 pronghorn were killed at once. Mass killings can happen when a herd is hit while bunched together on the road after snow, officials said.
Drivers need to slow down and watch for pronghorn standing or sleeping in the road, especially at night, state wildlife officials said.
It does happen when there is blowing snow. There were nine vehicles involved in an accident in North Dakota many years ago with a group of pronghorn crossing a busy highway in the Bakken Basin while there was blowing snow, impacting visibility for both pronghorn and drivers. I don't know how many pronghorn were involved.
There was a record set in Colorado as far as snow fall from that storm last week.
https://www.cpr.org/2024/11/11/colorado-snowfall-set-records-around-the-state-this-weekend/
"Though the season has just begun, Denver received approximately 20 inches of snow last week. And if another solid storm comes through before December, it could make history.
“So if the month ended right now — which obviously it isn't — but right now the 20 inches we have on the month, that would actually be the 10th snowiest November in Denver's history,” said Zach Hiris, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “To get to the top two or three, we’ve got to get about eight or nine more inches of snow.”
Southeast Denver received an unusually large amount of snow compared to other areas along the Front Range. And according to Hiris, this was simply due to “the way the winds worked out.”
Further south, snowfall records for the date were broken in both Pueblo and Colorado Springs.
On Friday, Nov. 8, both cities received record breaking amounts of snowfall. Pueblo received almost 5 inches of snow — breaking the previous daily record set in 1890. Similarly in Colorado Springs, the southern Colorado city received 8 inches of snow breaking the previous record of 2.6 inches set in 1975.
To the west, the mountains are also off to a snowy start, giving the state’s early snowpack a boost. Front Range cities and agriculture all depend on a deep snowpack.
“Across the state, we're doing pretty darn good for the most part. We're running above average to well above average to start,” Hiris said of the snowpack in the various mountain basins — particularly those south of I-70. “But obviously it's a long ways to go until we get to the peak of the snowpack season.”
At the height of the storm, more than 75,300 people lost power across the state, most of them in the Denver metro area. As of noon Monday, more than 1,000 homes in metro Denver are without power, according to Xcel’s power outage map, but according to Michelle Aguayo, a spokesperson for the utility, none of these outages are related to the storm.
“Everybody whose power was impacted by the storm has been restored,” Aguayo told CPR News."
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I stayed inside during the storm and honestly couldn't tell that it was that bad. I have flagstone walks and they tend to heat up and melt snow faster than cement walkways. A neighbor did shovel for me, as often happens in our area, snow angels take care of other's walkways. I've participated in that myself.
Once we were driving in North Dakota. Daughter was behind the wheel and we had driven from Colorado that day. It was dark and there was blowing snow, making it difficult to see, but we were close to our destination. A deer hit the car. The damage was not bad, but it could have been. I just needed to replace the front passenger side panel on the car. It was bent and it was tricky to get the door open until that panel was replaced.
I don't know about other places, but deer can also be a big problem for drivers. Truck drivers and others know that night time driving is worse. I had a deer hit a rental car one time driving from Crater Lake in Oregon. It's the only accident that I have had with an animal when I was driving.