The weather of March in Denver features frequent and rapid changes. Longer days allow for more sunshine, and occasional arctic air masses can still plunge southward across Colorado.
In addition to arctic fronts, Pacific storms still move in frequently from the west. Warm, moist air can stream northwestward from the Gulf of Mexico. All these elements can bring volatile weather to the area around Denver.
March is Denver’s snowiest month of the year. However, the snow rarely stays on the ground for long, usually obliterated by the longer hours of sunshine and moderate temperatures. 2003 saw Denver’s snowiest March in history, with 35.2 inches of snow.
March usually has the region’s first thunderstorms of spring. There are still a few days of strong chinook winds, with the strongest winds usually near the foothills.
An example of March’s volatility was March 8, 1992. The morning was sunny over Denver, with a high of 52 degrees. Afternoon tornadoes and thunderstorms developed over the northeast Plains and metro Denver. A Canadian cold front moved into the region late in the afternoon, dropping temperatures and creating blizzard conditions along the Front Range.
