You can call Wednesday’s storm a bomb cyclone or not, but one thing’s for sure about this week’s storm: it was exceptionally cold and windy.
Bitterly cold temperatures for mid-April and gusty winds dominated the impacts from this week’s storm system. Denver International Airport had a peak gust of 39 mph from the storm. Colorado Springs’ airport gusted to 52 mph, and Pueblo saw a gust to 64 mph on Wednesday night.
But the greatest impact might’ve been just how darn cold it was on Wednesday and Thursday, and right on the heels of the Denver’s warmest day in months.
On Tuesday, temperatures rocketed up to 78 degrees ahead of a powerful cold front. That front took that 78-degree temperature, which was measured at 3:35 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, all the way down to 17 degrees by late Wednesday night. In all, it amounted to a stunning 61-degree drop in less than a day and a half.
To put that into perspective, Tuesday’s 78-degree reading was the city’s warmest temperature reading in almost six months. Thursday’s average temperature of 26 degrees made it Denver’s coldest April day in six years, and Thursday’s low of 17 degrees was also the city’s coldest April temperature since 2013.
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And yes, many of you might’ve felt underwhelmed with snowfall totals from this week’s storm. Most of the Denver metro area from the wind-driven event, but Denver’s official total of 2.5 inches (taken at DIA) was on the low side of most forecasts. As we mentioned in the build-up to the event, however, exact snow amounts often don’t dictate the highest impacts in a given storm.
Denver’s official seasonal total is now up to 43.2 inches, which is nearly double what the city’s seen in the last two winters combined. It is, however, still technically a few inches behind schedule, as Denver should be around 50 inches by this point of the winter season.
Snow showers tonight could add a bit to those seasonal totals, but they probably won’t come close to the 2.5 inches of snow Denver officially saw on Wednesday and Thursday.
But fear not, warm weather lovers. For those of you hoping for some spring-like warmth, it’ll arrive by Monday, with highs bouncing back into the 70s. Next week generally looks closer to more seasonable mid-April weather.
Chris Bianchi is a meteorologist for WeatherNation TV.
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