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Denver Weather: First March Storm Brings Big Snow, Record Cold

DENVER (CBS) - Our first storm of the month managed to really do a number on Colorado from the mountains to the plains. In addition to picking up 4.3" of snow, Denver set two records for cold with the latest storm system.

cold
(credit: CBS)

Sunday's high for Denver only made it to 6 degrees. That was a Record Low Max. Meaning the coldest the high had ever been on March 3rd. The old record was 14 set in 1978. Then, on Monday morning the temperature bottomed out at -5 degrees! That was a new record low for March 4th. The old record was -3 degrees also set in 1978.

By the way that 4.3 inches in Denver this weekend lifted the seasonal total to 32.1 inches. That is still 4.5 inches below normal for the season as a whole. But, we are getting there.

By far the most snow was in the Colorado mountains. And boy did this storm dump up there. So much so that several avalanches occurred over the weekend. With some of them covering I-70!

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An image of one of the avalanches near Tenmile Creek close to Copper Mountain (credit: Brandon Maki)

Many areas received over two to nearly 3 feet of snow in a very short period of time.

RELATED: Several Avalanches Send Snow Onto Interstate 70

There is an avalanche warning in place thru Monday evening in parts of the northern and central mountains as dangerous conditions are still in place.

More snow will be pushing into the Colorado mountains with significant accumulation by mid-week.

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