Double-digit snow forecast for Denver seems less outlandish considering historical data

At least one forecast is calling for big snow to hit Denver come March – and while that might sound absolutely outlandish during a year where the snowpack has spent quite a bit of time at record lows, the prediction of 14″ of snow over a seven-day stretch (or 10″ over three days) in the Mile High City is hardly noteworthy from a historical standpoint.

Note from the author: Here’s a look at the forecast that’s indicating a possibility of big snowfall in Denver, per Pivotal Weather mapping. It’s worth noting that all forecasting doesn’t indicate this will hit. For example, the AccuWeather daily weather outlook indicates that temperatures in the 50s and 60s will be present during this stretch. Either way, here’s some interesting weather data related to Denver and big snowfall in March, which happens to be the snowiest month of the year for the Mile High City.

For starters, 16.5 inches of snow or more has fallen 10 times during a single day in Denver since records started in 1882. Four of those dates were in December, two of those dates were in April, and four of those dates were in March, including the March 14 storm of 2021 that dropped 19.9 inches of snow on the Mile High City over just 24 hours (3rd-highest single-day snowfall for Denver overall).

The 14-inch forecast related to incoming weather isn’t talking about a single-day storm, either. It’s talking about multiple rounds of multi-day snowfall, one of which might bring 10 inches over three days. To put that in perspective, the 20 largest snowstorms that have hit Denver since 1882 have all hit with 17.3 inches of snow or more. The second-largest storm in Denver history was a three-day storm in March 2003, which dropped more than three times what’s forecast to hit between March 6 and March 8 at 31.8 inches.

In other words, while a 10″ snowfall forecast or a 14″ snowfall forecast for a March storm may seem a bit crazy amid a winter where not much snow has fallen in Denver, springtime storms in Denver that bring double-digit snow totals aren’t exactly rare. After all, data shows that March is actually Denver’s snowiest month of the year, with a norm of about 11.4 inches of snowfall (April is second-snowiest with 8.9 inches on average of a total 57.1 inches of typical annual snowfall). The big question related to the incoming weather at this time seems to be if temperatures will be cold enough to support snowfall – some forecasting services say it’ll be too warm. We’ll have to wait and see.

Find additional information on Denver’s historical weather records here and see mapping related to the snowfall forecast calling for 14″ in Denver during the first half of March here.

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