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It's hard to explain unless you've spent time there. The front range gets cold sometimes. It has a lot more nice days than frigid days. In a general sense it's mild.
There is a lot that goes into what I define as nice weather. You have the temperature, the wind, elevation, clouds/sun, and humidity. Denver has a lot going for it. One is it's elevated, so the sun is stronger. You have less atmosphere between you and the sun. You can get a tan skiing in Feb. The other thing is it's in the middle of the U.S. Orthographic lift leads to precipitation all along the west coast and western mountainous states. The air goes over numerous ranges: the Pacific coastal ranges, Sierra Nevada, Wasatch, Rockies, etc. By the time it gets to the front range, it's very dry. There is also a weather phenomenon that's called a foehn wind. It has to do with the dry vs wet adiabatic lapse rate of air. Basically air warms more when it's dry, so as it descends it gets warm even in winter. You get 65 degree days in the middle of winter sometimes. It's almost always dry and sunny. You have wind but it's warm wind. If the wind comes from the east you will get snow and crappy weather. The wind usually doesn't come from the east though. The wind from the east comes from the gulf and heads up the front range creating snow. You can always tell it's going to snow when you smell the cow crap coming in from the east.
Most days are mild and sunny. It can feel like a 55 degree day even when it's cold because of the elevation and sun. Most days you can get outside, ride a bike, bbq, do whatever. It can get cold but it's always short lived with the fohen winds melting everything. When it snows, go skiing. When it's nice go golfing or ride a bike. Coming from the east coast, it feels like a beautiful day in April. A lot of people from CA complain that's it's intolerable, lol.
Last edited by FrontierMan; 10-03-2015 at 10:32 PM..
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Originally Posted by FrontierMan
There is also a weather phenomenon that called a foehn wind. It has to do with the dry vs wet adiabatic lapse rate of air. Basically air warms more when it's dry so as it descends it gets warm even in winter. You get 65 degree days in the middle of winter sometimes. It's almost always dry and sunny. You have wind but it's warm wind. If the wind comes from the east you will get snow and crappy weather.
I lived in Philadelphia one year and compared to Denver it is much worse weather. Snow sticks around from one snow to the next in the East is what I witnessed. In Denver it comes and goes, not lasting long. Damp cold in the east, is a lot worse than Denver with dry cold.
I now live in Montana, quite a distance north from Denver, though I have family still living in Denver area so we watch the weather there. I would not give up our weather, which is milder than Denver. We live in the Snow Shadows of the Rockies where the snow falls in the mountains, then skips over us and starts snowing again. Only bout 30 inches all winter.
Averages are far more important than extremes. So Denver is not that cold in the winter. Average highs are well above freezing even at the coldest time of the year. Lows are around 20 F / -7 C.
Denver is imo definitely colder in winter than averages indicate.
Similar to Calgary
Standard deviation is off the charts.
I remember seeing last winter Denver having a number of times
where the high did not get much higher than 0F / -18C
Denver gets Chinooks that can send temps soaring,
which skews the averages higher.
Looking at average temps alone, a person might think Denver is
almost as mild as Albuquerque but in reality no,
ABQ is much more stable and is in gardening zone 7b,
with a few micro climates verging on zone 8a
They have few cold hardy palms that would certainly be killed off in Denver.
On the plus side, Denver is far sunnier in winter than anywhere on the east coast
except maybe Miami
Generally speaking, Denver's Winter is on the milder side and there are superior Winter climates back east depending on what you value weatherwise whether it is snowier or more mild.
In fact, I would say that Denver has an all-or-nothing sort of weather pattern which is common for lower elevation areas in the Rockies region. Generally speaking I prefer consistency.
As far as BMI's comments vis-a-vis the Albuquerque comparison, as said, the two cities are very similar on average but Albuquerque does not get the extreme swing and about half the Winter storm systems that affect Denver don't make it south of Santa Fe, so Albuquerque ends up a bit sunnier and while it maintains the cold average, it rarely gets the short periods of extreme lows (under the teens F) that Denver gets periodically.
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