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Denver Climatological Preview - March 2008 |
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A Preview of Denver's March Weather - Lots of Changes
These changes are due to Marches “in between” status – elements during the month have much in common with winter and spring. In addition to arctic fronts, Pacific storms frequently move across Colorado from the west and warm moist air streams up from the Gulf of Mexico northeastward into the state. When these cold fronts collide with the warmer air masses the result can be some crazy weather. Our March weather calendar has many examples of this changeable weather but one of the most notable occurred on March 8, 1992. The morning saw sunny skies and a high temperature of 52 degrees at midday. By the afternoon though, things changed rapidly as tornadoes and thunderstorms with hail developed across the northeast plains, including the Denver Metro area. This was followed by a Canadian cold front that hit in the late afternoon that caused temperatures to drop and blizzard conditions to set in along the Front Range. By the time it was done, 12.4 inches of snow had fallen at Stapleton International Airport and even higher amounts reported across the greater metro area. More recently, on March 17, 2003 a tornado struck near Bennett when air temperatures were only in the 40’s. Later that day the second strongest winter storm in Denver history began. From March 17th to the 20th 31.8 inches of snow was recorded at Stapleton. A whopping 87.5 inches was recorded near Rollinsville just west of Denver in the foothills. Being a spring storm, this was a very wet storm compared to what we normally receive with an 8 to 1 ratio – i.e. 8 inches of snow yielded 1 inch of moisture. Typically in Colorado we average around a 10 to 1 ratio. March 2003 became the snowiest March in Denver history with 35.2 inches. However we also have seen dry Marches on occasion including 0.3 inches of snow in 1883, 0.4 inches in 1911 and 1.8 inches in 2004. March 2004 became the second driest March in Denver history recording only 0.14 inches of moisture; the driest was in 1908 when only 0.11 inches was measured. As most locals know, March is the snowiest month of the year. However, thanks to the rapid changes we experience, the snow doesn’t usually stick on the ground for long thanks to lots of sunshine and moderate temperatures. March also usually has the first spring thunderstorms and strong Chinook winds do still make their way on a few days, particularly near the foothills. Looking Back at March 2007 – the 8th Warmest March on Record For the first 28 days of the month, March 2007 was close to being one of the top five warmest Marches in history but that changed quickly on the 29th and 30th when we experienced below normal high temperatures – 37.2 and 46.1 respectively in Thornton. We finished the month with an average temperature of 46.1 which is quite a bit above the average of 39.6. The warmest March on record occurred in 1910 with a 50.4 degree average. Temperatures during March 2007 varied from a high of 75 degrees (78.1 in Thornton) to a low of 14 degrees (15.8 in Thornton). Precipitation for March 2007 finished below normal. Official Denver measurements show a total of only 0.57 inch which was 0.71 inch below normal. In Thornton we fared better with 0.83 inch of moisture. Most of this occurred on the 24th thanks to a bit of a rainstorm. We did not do well on the snow front either with a mere 6.7 inches officially record – 6.5 inches in Thornton. This is in contrast to March being the snowiest month with a historical average of 11.7 inches. Despite this, the month wasn’t in the top 10 for driest Marches on record in terms of precipitation or snowfall. The first thunderstorms of 2007 were observed on March 23rd in Morgan and Boulder Counties. 1 3/4 inch hail was reported 3 miles north of Fort Morgan. At DIA there were 2 occurrences of dense fog and 6 days with light fog. The peak wind gust occurred on the 28th with a gust to 56 mph from a southerly direction (180 degrees) at DIA. Here in Thornton though the wind was much more moderate with a peak gust of 29.9 mph on the same day, almost Thornton’s highest for the month. Click here to view the March 2007 Climatology Report. March 2008 Outlook For the Denver metro area the National Weather Service 30-day outlook model expects temperatures to be slightly above normal while the precipitation model forecasts at or slightly below normal precipitation. For More Information Temperature Normals and Extremes for March Monthly Temperature, Rainfall and Snowfall Extremes for March
* Historical weather statistics gathered from the National Weather Service's Denver / Boulder forecast office data archives. |
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March in Denver typically means frequent and rapid weather changes. The days grow longer and we start enjoying more sunshine and sometimes summer-like weather. However, on occasion arctic air masses can still force their way south into Colorado dropping temperatures quickly and markedly. 