Old Man Winter is making his presence felt in a big way this week.
Denver saw its snowiest day in over a year on Wednesday, and on Thursday morning, the city saw its coldest air temperature in over two years.
Thursday morning’s reading of 11 degrees below zero made it Denver’s coldest air temperature since Dec. 16, 2016, when the mercury got as low as minus-15. While Denver didn’t get close to the daily record low of minus-17 degrees, it was cold enough to close schools throughout the metro.
Wind chills, a combination of air temperature and wind that measures how cold it actually feels, reached 19-below in Denver on Thursday morning.
[RELATED: How meteorologists underestimated Colorado’s snowstorm in late January]
Denver also officially saw 3.1 inches of snow on Wednesday, snarling traffic and disrupting afternoon and evening commuters throughout the metro area during Wednesday afternoon’s drive. While 3.1 inches might not sound like all that much snow (most of the metro area saw more than that), it was enough to make it Denver’s snowiest day in over a year, with the last 3-inch-or-more snow day coming back in January 2018.
More than the official total, however, the storm’s timing during the afternoon and evening made for a near-standstill on area roads. Heavy, wind-driven snow bands producing two or more inches of snow per hour pivoted through the metro area, quickly accumulating on area roadways and making traffic a nightmare.
It could always be worse. Denver’s coldest temperature ever recorded, by the way, was a bone-chilling minus-29 degrees back in 1875, and its snowiest day was a whopping 23.8 inches .
Cold and snow won’t be a factor in the next few days, though, as temperatures warm back into the 40s by the weekend, and while temperatures will generally hover on the colder side of average over the next few days, there’s no snow in the forecast over the next few days.
