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Denver Weather: After Five Cold Weather Records, Could This Be Winter's Last Stand?

DENVER (CBS4) - Five cold weather records have been broken this week in Denver including a new record low Friday morning when the city officially dropped to 12 degrees. Some are wondering if this could be the last wave of really cold weather this season. The average last snow and last freeze in Denver is still more than a week away.

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Denver also established new record low temperatures on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday this week. The coldest of the new records was on Tuesday when the temperature officially reached 11 degrees. The previous record on Tuesday was from 1933 and all the broken records this week were from at least 87 years ago.

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The record "coldest maximum" was also set on Monday when the high temperature for the day never reached about 25 degrees. It had never stayed so cold on April 13 in Denver's recorded history.

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In addition to the cold, most areas along the Front Range measured significant snow Wednesday night into Thursday this week. The biggest snow total was in Jamestown which is located in the foothills west of Boulder. Jamestown measured 30 inches while Fort Collins received 14 inches.  Boulder received 16.9 inches of snow which brings their total for the season to a record 151.2 inches. Meanwhile Denver's official total was only 1.3 inches measured at DIA.

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With the remarkable cold and snow this week, many have asked the CBS4 Weather Team if this could be the last wave of seriously cold and snowy weather this season. The answer is complicated because although warmer temperatures and only rain is in Denver's forecast for at least the next 7 days, we're still more than a week away from the average date for the final snow and final freeze of the season.

When it comes to snow, the average last snow in Denver is April 28 although has it been as early as March 4 (1887) and as late as June 2 (1951). Last year the final snow was on May 21 when about 4 inches fell in Denver.

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The final freeze comes later. The average date over the last 148 years is May 4 although it has been as early as April 5 (1977 and 1981) and as late as June 8 (2007).

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So while it's still soon to tell if Denver is done with snow or even freezing temperatures this season, the odds are good there could be at least one more snow event and even more likely there will be more overnight freezing temperatures before the cold weather season is truly over.

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But for at least next week, neither snow or freezing weather appears likely.

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