Freezing cold weather in Denver is set to topple a century-old record Tuesday as bundled up and shivering locals shoveled snow from sidewalks and drivers scraped ice off of windshields while warming up cold cars.
Denver’s high temperature on Tuesday reached a frigid 13 degrees, making the mark a record low maximum temperature for the date. The previous lowest maximum temperature for Denver on Feb. 20 was 16 degrees, posted way back in 1911, according to the National Weather Service. The impending record will not be official until midnight.
Other deep freeze areas in northeastern Colorado on Tuesday included Firestone, where the temperature dropped to minus 11 degrees; and Agate, which dropped to minus 10 degrees.
The record-setting cold in Denver is part of an Arctic air mass that has “settled in” along the Front Range and northeastern Colorado, said Frank Cooper, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boulder.
The cold snap came amid a wild, roller coaster swing. Denver had a high temperature of 69 degrees on Sunday, and then the temperature dropped to a low of minus 3 degrees at 6:45 a.m. Tuesday. The 72-degree swing is the 13th widest on record, spanning 147 years, in Denver in a 36- to 48-hour time range, according to the weather service.
For the 2nd time in 4 months Denver had a 36-48 hour temperature swing ranked in the top 20 all time in Denver’s weather history, spanning 147 years. #COwx pic.twitter.com/PlxgKk1Wlo
— NWS Boulder (@NWSBoulder) February 20, 2018
The hard, deep cold snap, especially after Sunday’s warmth, caused some pipe troubles in the area.
“We are starting to see an influx in calls,” said Lynn Tomasek, president of Brothers Plumbing, Heating & Electric. Calls were up about 50 percent, compared to a normal day.
“It typically takes a couple of days of these colder temperatures” to cause widespread problems, Tomasek said. “There has definitely been an influx” in weather-related calls after Sunday’s warmth.
The cold weather plunge came with snow and gusting winds in northeastern Colorado. As of Tuesday morning the Rocky Flats area had 8.5 inches of snow and Louisville had 8 inches, according to the weather service.
Here are some snow totals from last night’s storm. Most of Denver and Fort Collins saw 3”-5” of snow, while areas between Boulder and Louisville saw 5”-9” #COwx pic.twitter.com/LHgdXqSDm2
— NWS Boulder (@NWSBoulder) February 20, 2018
Scattered snow showers remain in the Denver area forecast through Tuesday night, although the new overnight accumulation in the city should be less than an inch.
Don’t look for Denver’s weather to sky rocket back toward Sunday’s spring-like temperatures anytime soon.
Denver’s high temperature on Wednesday should top out at 27 degrees under mostly sunny skies, after a foggy morning, the weather service reports. Thursday should be warmer, but still below freezing, with a high temperature of 30 degrees in the city. There’s a 20 percent chance of snow showers in the Denver forecast for Thursday afternoon. On Friday, the city should finally climb above freezing, with a high temperature of 37 degrees.
There’s a slight chance for snow showers in Denver Friday night. On Saturday, however, skies should be mostly sunny as the high temperature reaches 40 degrees.
