February comes and serves as a bit of a month of transition between winter and spring. Average temperatures start to climb and things are generally pretty quiet.
However, it is still winter and below freezing temperatures at night still remain the norm. February is not typically a snowy month - in fact only the 6th snowiest - with an average of 6.3 inches. In terms of severe weather, the month joins September and October as being the quietest for Denver.
As we say though, it is a month of transition and as such extremes can and have occurred in the past. From severe cold and snow to beautiful spring-like days we can see it all. Oftentimes the month can lull us into a false sense of spring when the snowiest month - March - has yet to come. Some of the significant February weather events in history include:
In 1883 from February 1st to the 9th a protracted cold period occurred when low temperatures dipped to below zero for 9 consecutive days.
In 1953 a major blizzard dumped 10.6 inches of snow on Stapleton International Airport between the 18th and the 20th.
In 1909 a storm dumped 12.9 inches of snow, in 1912 another dumped 14.2 inches and in 1931 one dumped 12 inches.
On the other hand though, in 2004 February was the 8th month in a row with below normal precipitation. This was followed up in February 2005 with the 2nd driest February on record - a meager 0.02 inches of precipitation. It also was the second least snowiest February (0.5 inch) in Denver's weather history.
Looking back at February 2008
In terms of precipitation, February 2008 offered meager amounts of moisture wtih a mere 0.18 inch - 0.34 inch short of the normal of 0.52 inch. Only five days during hte month had measurable precipitation and only one of those had more than a tenth of an inch. Snowfall as well was below normal with 5.1 inches, 1.2 inches below normal. Of what did fall, more than half fell in a single day on the 5th of the month with 3 inches.
Temperatures for the month were near normal with an average temperature of 34 degrees, just 0.7 degree above normal. The highest temperature of the month was 65 degrees and the lowest was 2 degrees. All 29 days of the month had low temperatures below or at freezing but none below zero. No temperature records were set or tied during the month.
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