9 inches of snowfall at Denver International Airport. 6 inches, measured between July 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011 made it the third least snowiest season to date.
Every event with a place to put it; 16 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS BOU wrote it up.
The month of March 2011 was the eighth least snowiest March on record with 2.9 inches of snowfall at Denver International Airport. The seasonal snowfall of 20.6 inches, measured between July 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011 made it the third least snowiest season to date. The combination of above normal temperatures, windy conditions and sparse precipitation resulted in very dry conditions along the Front Range Foothills, Urban Corridor and Northeast Plains. Over two dozen wildfires occurred throughout the region in March alone. Although structural damage was limited, the wildfires threatened hundreds of homes and forced the evacuation of thousands of residents and numerous road closures.
The first significant wildfire occurred in Left Hand Canyon, in the foothills west of Boulder, from March 11-13th. Gusty winds in the area allowed the fire to consume a total of 622 acres. The Indian Gulch Wildfire occurred just west of Golden, between Clear Creek and Golden Gate Canyons from March 20-25th. Strong winds coupled with very rugged terrain hampered fire fighting efforts and allowed the wildfire to consume another 1570 acres. A third large wildfire near Franktown, quickly consumed 1600 acres of primarily pastureland on March 24th but threatened hundreds of nearby homes.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Denver/Boulder, CO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 28, 3:16 PM MST, 8 hours 44 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO 316 PM MST MON FEB 28 2011 .SHORT TERM...TEMPERATURES TODAY WARMED TO AND ABOVE THE CONVECTIVE TEMPERATURE TODAY TO MIX DOWN THE STRONG WESTERLY WINDS ALOFT. THESE WINDS DOWNSLOPED OFF THE FOOTHILLS AND PALMER DIVIDE TO BRING RED FLAG CONDITIONS OVER THE WESTERN AND SOUTHERN PARTS OF THE METRO AREA AS WELL AS OVER THE PALMER DIVIDE TO LINCOLN COUNTY. DEWPOINTS WILL BE SLOW TO INCREASE BUT WINDS WILL BE DECREASING NEAR SUNSET AS THE AIRMASS DECOUPLES AGAIN. THE RED FLAG WARNING IS SET TO EXPIRE AT 5 PM. WESTERLY WINDS OVER THE HIGHER TERRAIN AND DOWN THE FOOTHILLS OF UP TO 50 MPH WILL DIMINISH SLIGHTLY THROUGH THE NIGHT. THIS WILL HELP MODERATE MINIMUM TEMPERATURES TONIGHT KEEPING THEM INTO THE 30S FOR THE LOWER FOOTHILLS AND WESTERN HALF OF THE PLAINS...DROPPING OFF INTO THE 20S FURTHER EAST. MOST MOUNTAIN VALLEYS WILL RETURN INTO THE LOW TEENS TO SINGLE DIGITS UNDER THE CLEAR SKIES. THE UPPER RIDGE WILL CONTINUE TO BE OVER THE STATE TUESDAY TO BRING MOSTLY CLEAR SKIES...DRY CONDITIONS AND ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES. WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO BE MUCH LIGHTER...DIMINISHING THE THREAT OF CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS. .LONG TERM...FLAT UPPER LEVEL RIDGE WILL BRING DRY AND MILD CONDITIONS OVER THE FORECAST AREA TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY. THERE IS A WEAK SURGE ACROSS THE NORTHEAST PLAINS TUESDAY NIGHT... WHICH WILL LEAD TO LIGHTER WINDS...COOLER TEMPERATURES...AND HIGHER HUMIDITIES. THERE IS A RISK OF A WEAK DENVER CYCLONE DEVELOPING AS WELL WHICH WOULD BRING A POTENTIAL OF PATCHY FOG BACK TOWARD THE FRONT RANGE. BY WEDNESDAY NIGHT...ENOUGH MOISTURE BEGINS TO IMPINGE ON THE MOUNTAINS TO BRING A CHANCE OF SNOW DURING THE NIGHTTIME HOURS. THERE WILL BE A BETTER CHANCE OF SNOW THURSDAY AND THURSDAY NIGHT AS MOISTURE AND Q-G LIFT BOTH INCREASE AHEAD OF A WEAK TROUGH. AN UPPER LEVEL JET PASSING TO OUR SOUTH WILL ALSO AID THE LARGE SCALE LIFT. THIS WILL BRING A CHANCE OF SHOWERS ONTO THE PLAINS BY VERY LATE IN THE DAY BUT MORE LIKELY THURSDAY NIGHT AS A WEAK FRONT SLIDES DOWN THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE FRONT RANGE. TEMPERATURES ARE WARM ENOUGH FOR A RAIN/SNOW MIX ON THE PLAINS...BUT EVENTUALLY TEMPERATURES SHOULD TURN COOL ENOUGH THURSDAY NIGHT OR FRIDAY TO TURN PRECIPITATION OVER TO SNOW. AT THIS TIME...ANY ACCUMULATION ON THE PLAINS SHOULD BE LIMITED BY THE WARM BOUNDARY LAYER...WHILE MODERATE ACCUMULATIONS WOULD BE POSSIBLE IN THE MOUNTAINS. DRYING IS EXPECTED BY FRIDAY OR FRIDAY NIGHT AS LARGE SCALE SUBSIDENCE BUILDS IN BEHIND THE WEAK TROUGH. ANOTHER FLAT RIDGE BUILDS IN BY SATURDAY WHICH WILL RESULT IN DRY AND WARMER CONDITIONS AGAIN. MEDIUM RANGE MODELS ARE THEN IN GENERAL AGREEMENT BRINGING ANOTHER STORM SYSTEM INTO THE GREAT BASIN BY SUNDAY INTO MONDAY. THE CHANCE OF SNOW WILL GENERALLY INCREASE THROUGH EARLY NEXT WEEK WITH GOOD Q-G LIFT AHEAD OF THIS NEXT DIGGING TROUGH. THERE ARE NOT TOO MANY INDICATIONS OF SIGNIFICANT DIGGING...BUT THIS STORM SYSTEM DOES BARE WATCHING GIVEN THE TIME OF YEAR AND ENERGY SEEN IN THE PACIFIC. .AVIATION...VFR CONDITIONS TO PREVAIL THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT. STRONG WESTERLY WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO DECREASE AROUND 00Z AND RETURN TO A DRAINAGE PATTERN BEGINNING AT 02Z. MUCH LIGHTER WINDS EXPECTED TUESDAY. && .BOU WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... RED FLAG WARNING UNTIL 5 PM MST THIS AFTERNOON FOR COZ240-241- 246-247. && SHORT TERM...KRIEDERMAN LONG TERM....BARJENBRUCH
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO 1102 AM MST MON FEB 28 2011 COZ030>051-011300- JACKSON COUNTY BELOW 9000 FEET-WEST JACKSON AND WEST GRAND COUNTIES ABOVE 9000 FEET-GRAND AND SUMMIT COUNTIES BELOW 9000 FEET-SOUTH AND EAST JACKSON/LARIMER/NORTH AND NORTHEAST GRAND/ NORTHWEST BOULDER COUNTIES ABOVE 9000 FEET-SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST GRAND/WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST BOULDER/GILPIN/CLEAR CREEK/ SUMMIT/NORTH AND WEST PARK COUNTIES ABOVE 9000 FEET-LARIMER AND BOULDER COUNTIES BETWEEN 6000 AND 9000 FEET-JEFFERSON AND WEST DOUGLAS COUNTIES ABOVE 6000 FEET/GILPIN/CLEAR CREEK/NORTHEAST PARK COUNTIES BELOW 9000 FEET-CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST PARK COUNTY-LARIMER COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/NORTHWEST WELD COUNTY-BOULDER AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES BELOW 6000 FEET/WEST BROOMFIELD COUNTY-NORTH DOUGLAS COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/DENVER/WEST ADAMS AND ARAPAHOE COUNTIES/ EAST BROOMFIELD COUNTY-ELBERT/CENTRAL AND EAST DOUGLAS COUNTIES ABOVE 6000 FEET-NORTHEAST WELD COUNTY-CENTRAL AND SOUTH WELD COUNTY-MORGAN COUNTY-CENTRAL AND EAST ADAMS AND ARAPAHOE COUNTIES- NORTH AND NORTHEAST ELBERT COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/NORTH LINCOLN COUNTY-SOUTHEAST ELBERT COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/SOUTH LINCOLN COUNTY-LOGAN COUNTY-WASHINGTON COUNTY-SEDGWICK COUNTY-PHILLIPS COUNTY- 1102 AM MST MON FEB 28 2011 ...RED FLAG WARNING OVER THE PALMER DIVIDE AND ADJACENT PLAINS... THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHEAST AND NORTH CENTRAL COLORADO. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT A DRY WESTERLY FLOW ALOFT WILL BE OVER THE REGION WITH TEMPERATURES THIS AFTERNOON WARMING TO ABOVE SEASONAL NORMALS. GUSTY WESTERLY WINDS WILL OCCUR IN THE MOUNTAINS AND HIGHER FOOTHILLS WHERE GUSTS FROM 45 TO 60 MPH WILL BE POSSIBLE. FIRE WEATHER CONCERNS WILL BE ELEVATED OVER THE PALMER DIVIDE AND ADJACENT PLAINS TODAY AS SOUTHWESTERLY WINDS ARE 20 TO 30 MPH WITH HUMIDITIES LESS THAN 15 PERCENT. THESE CONDITIONS SHOULD SUBSIDE LATER THIS AFTERNOON. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY AFTER DRY AND MILD CONDITIONS TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY...A DISTURBANCE WILL BRING UNSETTLED WEATHER WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY. THERE WILL BE A GOOD CHANCE OF SNOW IN THE MOUNTAINS WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY WITH POTENTIAL FOR SEVERAL INCHES OF SNOW ACCUMULATION. ON THE PLAINS...THERE WILL BE A CHANCE FOR RAIN AND SNOW SHOWERS STARTING THURSDAY AND CONTINUING INTO FRIDAY...WITH TEMPERATURES TURNING COLD ENOUGH FOR MOSTLY SNOW BY FRIDAY. FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY SHOULD SEE CLEARING CONDITIONS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY OR TONIGHT. KRIEDERMAN/BARJENBRUCH
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
16 drought. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Colorado in 2011Every state in 2011This day in weather historyWarnings in Colorado, March 2011
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 287616, 287617, 287618, 287619, 287620, 287621, 287622, 287623, 287624, 287625, 287626, 287627, 287628, 287629, 287630, 287631.