A spring storm delivered several inches of snow to much of the Pikes Peak region Wednesday, but it won’t put much of a dent in the drought, weather forecasters said.

“It doesn’t hurt, but we’re many, many, many inches below normal, so it’s going to take a lot more than this,” said Steve Hodanish, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pueblo.

“It’s going to take months, if not years, to get back to normal,” he said.

While the storm also hit the mountains, the additional snowpack will do little in terms of filling up Colorado Springs’ reservoirs, which are below average for this time of year.

“The runoff that you would normally see from increased snowmelt, you’re not going to see it because the ground has been so parched,” Steve Berry, a spokesman for Colorado Springs Utilities, said.

“It’s really going to suck it up before it ever reaches the river, so we don’t expect much of a gain. There might be a little, but it certainly won’t be anything noticeable,” he said.

Springs Utilities, which implemented outdoor watering restrictions April 1 because of the drought, says its reservoirs are at 48 percent capacity. The preferred average for April is 71 percent, said Abby Ortega, Utilities’ water supply planning supervisor.

“We are on the second year of an extreme drought,” Ortega said.

April is typically the second-snowiest month for Colorado.

“April snowstorms are not uncommon here in Colorado. We just haven’t seen very many in a few years, but it’s nice to see that we got one,” Hodanish said.

Not everybody was happy, though. Wednesday’s storm caused a slew of traffic accidents, from roll-overs to vehicles sliding off the roads.

“Our phones have been ringing pretty much off the hook for the last couple of hours, so we’ve had a bunch,” a Colorado State Patrol dispatcher said about 7:30 p.m.

At Denver International Airport, 253 flights were canceled because of the storm. In addition, 15 flights were diverted, including seven to the Colorado Springs Airport.

Roads are expected to be slick and icy Thursday morning, especially in northern El Paso County and Teller County, which had been blanketed with seven inches of snow Wednesday evening.

The weather service said there was a slight chance of snow showers in the Colorado Springs area between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. Thursday. The forecast for Friday is for mostly sunny conditions, with a high temperature near 54 degrees.

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Gazette reporter Andrea Sinclair contributed to this report.

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Somsong Odom uses an umbrella to keep off the heavy, wet, snow as she heads into the Chapel Hills Mall Wednesday, April 17, 2013. Photo by Mark Reis, The Gazette Photo by MARK REIS, THE GAZETTE

MARK REIS, THE GAZETTE

City of Colorado Springs Traffic Photo by Monument and I-25 traffic cam

City of Colorado Springs Traffic Photo by County Line and I-25 traffic cam