It's normal in April to see large temperature swings, inches of snow, and even some severe thunderstorms—and this week, we're getting almost all of it.
April is a wild weather month in Denver. The dramatic weather swings we see stem from it being a transition month—we see big warm-ups and big cooldowns. In April 1992, Denver had its hottest temperature of 90 degrees, while the coldest temperature was -2 degrees back in 1975.
And the upcoming cold blast won't break monthly records, but it will most likely break daily records.
As promised, Easter Sunday was a cold and snowy day across much of the region. The big winners from the last 24 hours were in the Foothills and mountains along the continental divide. Boulder has received a foot and a half of snow so far!
As we continue through our Monday, more snow is going to fall. As you’ve probably noticed, snow technically hasn’t stopped since Sunday morning, but the issue we’ve had here in Denver is relatively light snow, warm ground temps, and a high April sun angle—that has limited the amount of snow that's actually sticking. The remainder of this afternoon and evening are going to be cold, as another surge of moisture brings more accumulating snow through this evening.
Winter Weather Advisory out for the Foothills and the Palmer Divide through early Tuesday AM.
— Andy Stein (@AndySteinWx) April 13, 2020
An additional 4-8" of snow is likely through Tuesday morning.
Denver can expect 2-4" of additional snow through the day. #Denver #Colorado #AprilSnow #SpringSnow pic.twitter.com/G1l2EhXY2l
After today, we will dry out temporarily before another round of snow and cold moves in.
Here's the largescale pattern bringing us so much snow and cold this week pic.twitter.com/37ezyhulx9
— Andy Stein (@AndySteinWx) April 13, 2020
As a cold front that's drawing bitter Canadian air drags south, we will see our temperatures go from a comfortable 5 to 15 degrees above-average to 20 to 30 degrees below average. It's going to be one of those nasty temperature changes, too, since it will be coming with a fair amount of snow. It's possible that we could see a greater than 50 degrees temperatures drop with this blast of cold air coming in. That wouldn't put us close to the all-time biggest temperature drops in Denver history, but it's still notable.
Another blast of cold air is coming later in the week and that will likely drop our temperatures yet again into possible record territory.
Ugh, this is just wrong.
— Andy Stein (@AndySteinWx) April 8, 2020
But 10% of me is excited about more snow. Call me crazy, I know. #Denver #Colorado pic.twitter.com/IpjxP5sqPM
For everyone who may have planted, or have seen spring blooms blossom, go ahead and move what you can inside. If you can't move plants inside, try covering them with plastic. This will have an impact on some of the trees that have already bloomed as well. Those are mainly Cherry, Plum, and Peach trees. Spring veggies are typically pretty hardy and can withstand a blast of cold and snow.
Snow is very insulated, and that will actually help us as this cold comes. With snow on the ground being followed by intense cold, the snow will help to insulate the plants and protect them from the coldest of temperatures. If you have already spread grass seed around, don't worry, the seed will be fine, but don't expect any growth to occur until soil temperatures are at least 60 degrees.
We will see a *slow* climb in temperatures, kind of, in Denver this week.
— Andy Stein (@AndySteinWx) April 13, 2020
We'll have to watch this weekend for it not being as warm as currently advertised. pic.twitter.com/IimQKd4gnQ
Bundle up! And enjoy the cold if you can. Read up on my full forecast here.
