DENVER — After a decent February, with Colorado snowpack levels at 88% of the median as of Feb. 28, Denver is entering its statistically snowiest month—March.
March is a very active month in Denver as we transition into spring. The month can bring big snowstorms to the city and typically accounts for 20% of the city's annual snowfall.
While March may be the snowiest month, it’s not the coldest. With a mean temperature of 40.4 degrees, it's Denver’s fifth coldest month.
The month starts with a normal high of 50 degrees and ends with a normal high of 58.
What was the warmest temperature recorded in Denver in March? That would be March 26, 1971, when it was a balmy 84 degrees.
For low temperatures, the month begins with a normal of 22 degrees and finishes with a normal of 30. The coldest in got in Denver in March was -11 degrees on the 28th day of 1886.
We typically see more than 10 inches of snow on average in March, but the month is also known for the biggest snowfall events in the region.
You don’t have to go far to remember the top two snowiest months of March. They both happened in the last 20 years, starting with that big 2003 Denver blizzard that dropped heavy snow for days, shutting down the city.
From March 17 through the 19th, the blizzard pounded Colorado, dumping 31.8” of snow in Denver and more than 7 feet in the foothills, according to the National Weather Service (NWS) in Boulder. Even in a city used to lots of snow, there were signs all around that it was just too much.
Buildings and roofs collapsed under the heavy weight, damaging at least 258 structures and shutting down Colorado roads and interstates for days.
The NWS reported that punishing wind gusts up to 41 mph created snow drifts up to 6 feet in parts of the Denver metro, and around 135,000 people lost power.
Denver International Airport was closed, stranding 4,000 passengers, the NWS reported. The iconic white tent roof at the airport was damaged, forcing an evacuation of the main building at DIA.
The snow totals just added up across Colorado. That March snowstorm saw some areas of the foothills accumulate over 7 feet of snow. Rollinsville in Gilpin County received 87.5 inches, and Winter Park measured 77.5 inches.
The 2003 March blizzard also dropped 50” of snow near Golden and 40.3” in Aurora.
The second snowiest March occurred in 2021 when 34.0 inches fell on the Mile High City. The bulk of that 34 inches came in the March 13-14 storm, which dumped 27.1 inches of snow at the airport, where the official weather records are recorded.
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