A major winter storm will hit Denver and the Front Range Thursday morning where some areas will be measuring snow in feet.
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for Denver and much of northeastern Colorado in anticipation of a significant storm now approaching the state. The warning takes the place of the previously issued watch and signifies the increased potential for a major snow event. The warning goes into effect at 6:00am Thursday morning and runs through 6:00am Friday.
Computer models are beginning to coalesce around solutions that involve snow amounts that could exceed a foot along the Palmer Divide and the foothills. Snow will begin falling in the foothills in the morning and by midday will encompass the entire Front Range. By the time the storm ends, much of the metro area will have in excess of six inches of snow. Tomorrow afternoon’s commute is almost certainly going to be a rough one.
The spring snowstorm could be our biggest storm to date for the 2008 – 2009 winter season. We are desperately in need of moisture so while it may be troublesome, we really need the precipitation.
March 22 - March 28 - This week in Denver weather history.
This week in Denver weather history are a number of interesting events. As March comes to a close we are not yet done with winter so snow is certainly still possible but we also start seeing more Spring-like weather. Reminders of this include the coldest temperature ever recorded in March – 11 degrees below zero 123 years ago. Conversely, 38 years ago the highest temperature ever recorded in March of 84 degrees was recorded.
20-22
In 1944…heavy snow fell over metro Denver for a total of 36 hours. The storm dumped 18.5 inches of snowfall over downtown Denver and 12.2 inches at Stapleton Airport. Fortunately…there were no strong winds with the storm. North winds to only 19 mph were recorded on the 21st.
21-22
In 1955…wind gusts to 98 mph were recorded at rocky flats south of Boulder. Some damage and a few minor injuries were reported in Boulder. Northwest winds were sustained to 28 mph with gusts to 39 mph at Stapleton Airport on the 22nd.
In 1966…a vigorous cold front produced only 1.7 inches of snowfall at Stapleton International Airport…but northeast winds gusted to 49 mph on the 21st. Temperatures cooled from a maximum of 66 degrees on the 21st to a minimum of 14 degrees on the 22nd. Strong winds occurred on both days.
In 1992…an arctic cold front produced upslope snow across metro Denver mainly west of I-25. Castle Rock reported 6 inches of snow with 3 inches at Evergreen. At Stapleton International Airport…only 1.5 inches of snowfall were measured and northeast winds gusted to 18 mph on the 21st.
Florida researches believe a strong La Nina event is responsible for reduced global hurricane activity.
Researchers at Florida State University announced that global hurricane activity continues to decrease and is now at levels not seen since 1977. The researchers say that, “Tropical cyclone (TC) activity worldwide has completely and utterly collapsed during the past 2 to 3 years.”
Using a measurement called the Accumulated Cyclone Energy index (ACE), researchers see a tremendous drop in cyclone energy for the globe as a whole. While the north Atlantic saw above normal levels of ACE in 2008, it represents a relatively small amount of the global hurricane energy and as such cannot compensate for the much reduced levels elsewhere on Earth.
Just as there are active periods of hurricane activity around the globe, there are inactive periods, and we are currently experiencing one of the most impressive inactive periods, now for almost 3 years.
– Florida State University researchers
You can find complete coverage of this story as well as an incredible slideshow of hurricanes as seen from space on our Examiner.com weather news page. Click here to go there.
March 15 to March 21 - This week in Denver weather history
This week is Denver and Thornton weather history is notable for many reasons. 2003 stands out as an extremely eventful year this week in weather history. From March 17th to the 19th, six years ago, Denver was hit by one of its largest snowstorms in history. We actually recently wrote about this storm on Examiner.com – click here to see it. Also, we see our first mention of a tornado for the year, also in 2003, on March 17th. The twister hit near Strasburg but was short-lived and caused no damage. These events serve as a reminder that winter is not over and severe weather can strike at any time.
9-19
IN 1906…AN EXTENDED COLD AND BLUSTERY PERIOD OCCURRED WITH LIGHT SNOW TOTALING 14.4 INCHES OVER 11 CONSECUTIVE DAYS. THE GREATEST AMOUNT OF SNOW ON A SINGLE DAY WAS 4.0 INCHES ON THE 15TH. ONLY A TRACE OF SNOW FELL ON THE 12TH AND 17TH. HIGH TEMPERATURES WERE BELOW FREEZING FOR THE ENTIRE PERIOD. THE COLDEST WERE 14 DEGREES ON THE 16TH AND 18 DEGREES ON THE 17TH. BOTH READINGS WERE RECORD LOW MAXIMUMS FOR THE DATES. LOW TEMPERATURES WERE MOSTLY IN THE SINGLE DIGITS. THE COLDEST WERE 2 DEGREES BELOW ZERO ON THE 16TH AND 5 DEGREES BELOW ZERO ON THE 19TH. NORTHEAST WINDS WERE SUSTAINED TO 22 MPH ON THE 9TH. NORTH WINDS WERE SUSTAINED TO 36 MPH ON THE 10TH…32 MPH ON THE 13TH… AND 22 MPH ON THE 15TH.
12-16
IN 1880…A PROTRACTED COLD SPELL RESULTED IN 8 TEMPERATURE RECORDS BEING SET. RECORD LOW TEMPERATURES FOR THE DATE WERE SET WHEN THE TEMPERATURE DIPPED TO 10 DEGREES BELOW ZERO ON THE 13TH AND 14TH…8 DEGREES BELOW ZERO ON THE 12TH AND 15TH…AND 4 DEGREES BELOW ZERO ON THE 16TH. DAILY RECORD LOW MAXIMUM TEMPERATURES WERE SET WITH 11 DEGREES ON THE 12TH…12 DEGREES ON THE 13TH… AND 19 DEGREES ON THE 15TH.
13-15
IN 1906…SNOWFALL TOTALED 8.0 INCHES OVER DOWNTOWN DENVER.
14-16
IN 1908…A WARM SPELL RESULTED IN DAILY RECORD HIGH MINIMUM TEMPERATURES ON 3 CONSECUTIVE DAYS: 54 DEGREES ON THE 14TH…52 DEGREES ON THE 15TH…AND 56 DEGREES ON THE 16TH… ALSO THE ALL-TIME RECORD HIGH MINIMUM FOR THE MONTH OF MARCH. HIGH TEMPERATURES RANGED FROM 65 DEGREES ON THE 14TH TO 72 DEGREES ON THE 16TH.
IN 1983…A HEAVY WET SNOWSTORM BURIED METRO DENVER WITH THE FOOTHILLS RECEIVING THE MOST. CONIFER RECORDED 34 INCHES OF SNOW WITH 4 FEET MEASURED AT COAL CREEK CANYON IN THE FOOTHILLS NORTHWEST OF DENVER. THE STORM LEFT 6 TO 10 INCHES OF SNOW ACROSS METRO DENVER. BOULDER RECEIVED 12 TO 18 INCHES. FLIGHT OPERATIONS AT STAPLETON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT WERE LIMITED TO ONE RUNWAY FOR A TIME. SOME ROADS AND SCHOOLS WERE CLOSED…AND POWER OUTAGES OCCURRED WHEN WET SNOW DOWNED LINES. SNOWFALL ON THE 15TH AND 16TH TOTALED 7.2 INCHES AT STAPLETON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT WHERE NORTH WINDS GUSTED TO 30 MPH. MAXIMUM SNOW DEPTH ON THE GROUND WAS ONLY 6 INCHES DUE TO MELTING.
Schmitt recalled as a child in Silver City, New Mexico helping his father, also a geologist, take rain measurements. Those early experiments spurred the former astronaut’s interest in earth sciences at an early age. He recalled how later in life, while on the surface of the moon, he made weather forecasts for the southern hemisphere of the earth.
In wide ranging commentary, Dr. Schmitt made a point by point argument against many of the things that global warming advocates point to in support of the theory. In a similar vein to his comments last month, he continued to admonish scientists and politicians that have politicized the issue and said those that disagree do have a battle ahead of them.
We have oftentimes heard headache sufferers, particularly those that get migraines, attribute their pain to the weather. These had sometimes been dismissed as an old wives tale but a new study shows that there is a great deal of truth to this.
The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston has recently completed the first large-scale study showing how environmental conditions like weather and air pollution can influence headache pain. Over 7,000 patients were studied in order to see if there is a link.
Kenneth Mukamal, MD, MPH, one of the authors of the study and a physician at BIDMC explains that, “Air temperature, humidity and barometric pressure are among the most frequent reasons that people give for their headache pain. But none of these reasons have been consistently verified. We wanted to find out if we could verify this ‘clinical folklore’.”
Mukamal and his coauthors compared levels of pollutants and meterological variables at the time of the patient’s hospital visit with corresponding levels on preceding days and subsequent weeks. Using meteorlogical and pollutant monitors they compared measurements of factors such as air temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, and dioxides from the three days prior to a patients’ visit to see if there was a correlation between these items and the patients’ headaches.
The results of the study seem to prove that this old wives tale is true. Of the factors considered, higher air temperature in the 24 hours just prior to a patient’s visit to the hospital was most associated with the headache symptoms. There was a 7.5 percent higher risk of severe headaches for each increase of nine degrees in temperature. Although not as profound, lower barometric pressure in the 48 to 72 hour period before a hospital visit also was seen to trigger headaches.
Dr. Mukamal says, “Certainly our results are consistent with the idea that severe headaches can be triggered by external factors. These findings help tell us that the environment around us does affect our health and, in terms of headaches, may be impacting many, many people on a daily basis.”
The next time you have a headache, if it was a good bit warmer the day before or the barometric pressure was lower a couple days before, you may have found the cause of your headache!
March 8 to March 14 - This week in Denver weather history
Our look back at Denver weather history for the week reminds us that although the calendar says it is March, it is still very much winter. Numerous mentions of snow, blizzards and related winter conditions are quite prevelant and we are reminded that March after all is our snowiest month.
6-8
IN 1932…SNOWFALL TOTALED 6.3 INCHES IN DOWNTOWN DENVER. MOST OF THE SNOW…5.2 INCHES… FELL ON THE 8TH. NORTHEAST WINDS GUSTED TO 20 MPH ON THE 6TH.
7-8
IN 1878…SNOW FROM THE EVENING OF THE 7TH UNTIL NOON OF THE 8TH TOTALED ONLY 5 INCHES IN DOWNTOWN DENVER. APPARENT HEAVIER SNOW OVER THE PLAINS ALONG WITH STRONG WINDS DRIFTED THE SNOW INTO HIGH DRIFTS…WHICH DELAYED TRAINS FOR SEVERAL DAYS AND CAUSED A GREAT LOSS OF LIVESTOCK. MELTING OF THE SNOW CAUSED A RISE IN CHERRY CREEK…WHICH RESULTED IN MUCH DAMAGE. PRECIPITATION FROM THE STORM TOTALED ONLY 0.50 INCH IN DENVER.
IN 2000…HIGH WINDS DEVELOPED IN AND NEAR THE FRONT RANGE FOOTHILLS…AS WELL AS PARTS OF THE NORTHEAST COLORADO PLAINS AS ANOTHER PACIFIC STORM SYSTEM MOVED ACROSS THE AREA. SEVERAL TREES AND POWER LINES WERE DOWNED NEAR BLACKHAWK…BOULDER… AND IN COAL CREEK CANYON. ABOUT 30 HOMES IN THE PINEBROOK HILLS SUBDIVISION IN BOULDER WERE EVACUATED WHEN DOWNED POWER LINES SPARKED A GRASSFIRE. THE WINDS EVENTUALLY SHIFTED THE FIRE ONTO ITSELF…THUS ALLOWING FIREFIGHTERS TO CONTAIN THE TWO ACRE BLAZE. SEVERAL ROOFS WERE BLOWN OFF BARNS…SHEDS… AND GARAGES. TWO SEMI-TRAILERS WERE BLOWN OVER…ONE ALONG C-470 BETWEEN GOLDEN AND MORRISON AND ANOTHER NORTH OF DENVER ON I-25. WIND GUSTS REACHED 101 MPH ON ROCKY FLATS…100 MPH AT THE NEARBY NATIONAL WIND TECHNOLOGY CENTER…90 MPH AT BLACKHAWK AND ATOP BLUE MOUNTAIN…92 MPH IN SOUTH BOULDER… 73 MPH IN COAL CREEK CANYON…72 MPH IN GOLDEN… AND 70 MPH AT LOUISVILLE. NORTHWEST WINDS GUSTED TO 45 MPH ON THE 7TH AND TO 49 MPH ON THE 8TH AT DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.
8
IN 1878…WINDS STARTED TO INCREASE AT 4:00 AM AND BLEW STEADILY AT SUSTAINED SPEEDS OF 36 TO 40 MPH WITH A MAXIMUM SUSTAINED SPEED OF 60 MPH AROUND 11:00 AM. SNOWFALL OF 5.0 INCHES OCCURRED IN THE CITY…BUT MUCH MORE SNOW FELL ON THE PLAINS…WHICH BLOCKADED TRAINS BOUND FOR THE CITY FOR SEVERAL DAYS.
IN 1898…NORTHWEST WINDS SUSTAINED TO 53 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 60 MPH WARMED THE TEMPERATURE TO A HIGH OF 67 DEGREES.
IN 1908…LIGHT SNOWFALL OF 0.8 INCH PRODUCED ONLY 0.01 INCH OF PRECIPITATION. THIS ALONG WITH THE 0.10 INCH OF PRECIPITATION ON THE 21ST RESULTED IN THE DRIEST MARCH ON RECORD WITH A TOTAL OF 0.11 INCH OF PRECIPITATION.
IN 1986…TEMPERATURES CLIMBED FROM A RECORD HIGH MINIMUM OF 45 DEGREES TO A RECORD MAXIMUM OF 72 DEGREES FOR THE DAY.
IN 2005…A VIGOROUS COLD FRONT MOVED A WALL OF BLOWING DUST ACROSS METRO DENVER DURING THE MID-MORNING. AT DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT…NORTH WINDS SUSTAINED TO 48 MPH WITH GUSTS AS HIGH AS 55 MPH…ALONG WITH VERY LIGHT RAIN WHICH CHANGED TO SNOW…BRIEFLY REDUCED THE SURFACE VISIBILITY TO 1 MILE. A THUNDERSTORM FORMED OVER ARVADA. WITH THE PASSAGE OF THE COLD FRONT…THE TEMPERATURE PLUNGED 11 DEGREES IN JUST 16 MINUTES AT DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT WHERE PRECIPITATION WAS ONLY 0.01 INCH ALONG WITH 0.1 INCH OF SNOW.
Sunny skies on Wednesday, March 4th helped Denver break a 137 year old high temperature record.
Denver officially broke the high temperature record on Wednesday, March 4th. At 12:40pm the temperature at Denver International Airport reached 76 degrees, breaking the old record of 74 degrees set in 1872.
This marks the 4th weather record we have broken in just the week. In addition to Wednesday’s mark, we have had:
March 3rd sets new record high minimum. Overnight temperatures got down to only 47 degrees, beating the old record of 44 set in 1925.
We are very dry right now and could really use some significant precipitation as snowfall totals are less than half of what they normally are by this time of year. Is there hope? We remember back to 2003 when we were in a similar dry condition and two major storms helped to turn things around. Click here to read about that on Examiner.com.
The old Stapleton International Airport site and Denver International Airport are separated by 12 miles. Is it accurate to compare weather between the two locations?
These announcements are common and we all take notice when we hear them and they make for great water cooler chat topics but are these claims accurate?
In 1995 Denver finally opened its new airport, Denver International Airport, out on the plains east of the city. This new facility, 12 miles as the crow flies northeast of the old Stapleton International Airport, moved the airport from an urban environment to a rural one and more than 19 miles from the center of Denver. Following that move, the National Weather Service (NWS) began taking some of its official measurements at the glistening new airport. In doing so, some say Denver’s climate records have forever been altered and as such any weather record should have an asterisk attached to it.
Denver officially set a new record high temperature for March 2nd.
Updated, 5:30pm: Denver’s official high temperature today reached 74 degrees at 3:08pm, beating the old record of 72 degrees by two.
Original post, 2:39pm: Denver has officially broken the high temperature record for today, March 2nd. At 1:52pm the thermometer at Denver International Airport reached 73 degrees, besting the old record of 72 degrees set way back in 1901. Here in Thornton we were a touch warmer reaching a high of 74.1 degrees.
This afternoon there is a chance the temperature could go a degree or two higher thus further increasing the record.
Is this really a record? Since moving Denver’s official weather recording station to DIA, many weather enthusiasts believe our weather and climate records are being unduly altered. Examiner.com just launched an investigative feature into this problem today – check out part 1 of our series on Examiner.com: Do Denver weather and climate records have an asterisk attached?
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