A Preview of Denver's February Weather - The Calm Before the Spring Storms

February comes and serves as a bit of a month of transition between winter and spring. Average temperatures start to climb and things are generally pretty quiet.

However, it is still winter and below freezing temperatures at night still remain the norm. February is not typically a snowy month – in fact only the 6th snowiest – with an average of 6.3 inches. In terms of severe weather, the month joins September and October as being the quietest for Denver.

As we say though, it is a month of transition and as such extremes can and have occurred in the past. From severe cold and snow to beautiful spring-like days we can see it all. Oftentimes the month can lull us into a false sense of spring when the snowiest month – March – has yet to come. Some of the significant February weather events in history include:

• In 1883 from February 1st to the 9th a protracted cold period occurred when low temperatures dipped to below zero for 9 consecutive days.
• In 1953 a major blizzard dumped 10.6 inches of snow on Stapleton International Airport between the 18th and the 20th. In 1909 a storm dumped 12.9 inches of snow, in 1912 another dumped 14.2 inches and in 1931 one dumped 12 inches.
• On the other hand though, in 2004 February was the 8th month in a row with below normal precipitation. This was followed up in February 2005 with the 2nd driest February on record – a meager 0.02 inches of precipitation. It also was the second least snowiest February (0.5 inch) in Denver's weather history.

More recently, February 2007 brought us below normal temperatures and precipitation. After both December and January 2007 had above normal snowfall, February fell to a below normal amount of snow. Total snowfall for the month was officially 5.5 inches as measured at Stapleton which is 0.8 inch below normal. In Thornton we didn’t fare so well with a meager 2.4 inches of snow. But the good news was that for the 2006-07 season through February, Denver had accumulated 65.0 inches of snowfall which was already 3.3 inches above the entire seasonal normal of 61.7 inches. Despite the dryness of the month, there were no precipitation records set or tied.

Temperatures in February 2007 also fell to below normal levels. The month averaged 29.1 degrees officially which finished 4.1 degrees below normal. In Thornton we fared a bit warmer with an average of 30.8. All 28 days recorded low temperatures at or below freezing while 5 days had high temperatures below the freezing mark. Temperatures ranged from a high of only 58 degrees down to a record setting -18 degrees on the 2nd breaking the old record of -16 last set in 1996. There were 2 below zero readings - the record -18 and -8 on the first. Again in Thornton we stayed a bit warmer as our low on the 2nd “only” got down to -13. Click here to view the February 2007 climate report.

February 2008 Outlook

The National Weather Wervice 30-day outlook model suggests that the temperature will be slightly above normal while precipitation will be near normal.

For More Information

Temperature Normals and Extremes for February

Monthly Temperature, Rainfall and Snowfall Extremes for February

FEBRUARY AVERAGE STATISTICS * Normals & Means, 1971 - 2000
TEMPERATURE
AVERAGE HIGH	47.2
AVERAGE LOW	19.1
MONTHLY MEAN	33.2
DAYS WITH HIGH 90 OR ABOVE	0
DAYS WITH HIGH 32 OR BELOW	4
DAYS WITH LOW 32 OR BELOW	26
DAYS WITH LOWS ZERO OR BELOW	2
PRECIPITATION
MONTHLY MEAN	0.49 INCH
DAYS WITH MEASURABLE PRECIPITATION	6
AVERAGE SNOWFALL	6.3 INCHES (6TH SNOWIEST MONTH)
DAYS WITH 1.0 INCH OR MORE SNOWFALL	2
MISCELLANEOUS FEBRUARY AVERAGES
HEATING DEGREE DAYS	892
COOLING DEGREES DAYS	0
WIND SPEED (MPH)	8.8
WIND DIRECTION	SOUTH
PERCENT OF SUNSHINE POSSIBLE	70
FEBRUARY EXTREMES
RECORD HIGH	77 DEGREES ON 2/28/2006 AND 2/4/1890
RECORD LOW	-25 DEGREES ON 2/1/1951 AND 2/8/1936
WARMEST	43.7 IN 1954
COLDEST	17.6 DEGREES IN 1899
WETTEST	2.01 INCHES IN 1934
MAXIMUM 24 HOUR MOISTURE	1.01 INCHES IN 1953
DRIEST	0.1 INCHES IN 1970
SNOWIEST	22.1 INCHES IN 1912
MAXIMUM 24 HOUR SNOWFALL	12.0 INCHES IN 1931 (27TH - 29TH)
LEAST SNOWIEST	0.3 IN 1970 AND 1992

* Historical weather statistics gathered from the National Weather Service's Denver / Boulder forecast office data archives.