John McGinley, Peak to Peak.

February 2021: Super cold, winds, snow, drifts…..sounds like winter doesn’t it? That’s what February 2021 brought to the Peak to Peak region. 

The culprit was a cold polar vortex that dominated the central and western US. We had 14 days of measurable snow; 20 if you counted days with trace amounts. Winds howled, with 15 days at 40+mph and 3 over 60mph. The combination of snow and winds created huge 3-4 ft snow drifts (at least in my yard). I don’t think I have performed snow removal on the driveway this many days for many years. To top it off we saw some of the coldest air we have seen in a number of years as temperatures fell to -17F on Valentines Day.

Precipitation: Snow totaled 27.2 inches well above the normal of 18 inches. Water content was 1.72 inches, very respectable. We never had a big dump, the maximum being 5 inches on the 12th, but we had snow on half the days of the month. Snow depth in flat spots reached 10 inches, but owing to the wind, drifts were 3-4 feet in spots.

Temperature: Average high was 30F, average low was 14F compared to the normals of 36F and 15F. Warmest high was 46F on the 1st; coldest high was -3F on the 14th. Coldest low was -17F on the 14th. This was the coldest February temperature since 2014 where we hit -20F.

Winds:  Wow, it was windy with 15 windy days and three of those over 60mph. The result was big drifts. February typically has only 10 windy days.

Other Features: Shift of the polar vortex from the pole to Hudson’s Bay allowed arctic air to slip over North America. Colorado was on the edge of these polar outbreaks until the 12th when a massive cold blast moved into the state. This also had huge impacts in the south central US with power and water failures.

Outlook for March: March will start on the warm side which should be welcomed across the foothills. A storm on the 4-5th may actually bring a rain/snow mix rather than all  snow. Conditions will turn colder about mid month where we have a couple of opportunities for significant snow. After that near normal conditions are likely. The average high in March is 43F with lows of 20F. We normally see 28 inches of snow and 10 windy days.

(Originally published in the March 4, 2021, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)