Denver Obliterates the Record High for February 10

By Ed Greene

DENVER (CBS4) - Strong westerly winds over Colorado pushed temperatures way into record territory along the Front Range on Friday. The previous record high for February 10 in Denver (71° set in 1951) was smashed when the official high topped out at 80 degrees! That is also the warmest temperature ever recorded in the entire month of February and also turned out to be the earliest 80 degree reading ever - trouncing the old record of the first 80 degree reading in mid-March...and one more stat: that 80 degree reading came just a little less than three months after our last 80 degree reading in November...which just happened to set the record for the latest 80 degree reading of any year! Denver was not alone as many other cities including Grand Junction (69), Colorado Springs (77) and Pueblo (82) - among others - set record highs. That warmth was brought on by strong downslope warming winds gusting as high as 109 miles an hour in Park County!

Now colder air and moisture are moving in with our next Winter Storm. As a result, a Winter Weather Advisory and Winter Storm Watch have been issued for most mountain locations for over a foot of new snow.

Denver will feel the cooling as well dropping our Saturday high into the mid 50s with a chance for rain showers in the afternoon. After dark that rain will eventually change over to snow...but it won't last very long and therefore just expect a trace to an inch across the greater metro area - a little more for some of the foothill locations. Then expect partly cloudy skies and colder for Sunday afternoon with a high in the lower 40s.

We'll begin next week by returning to sunny skies with a gradual warm-up: low 50s on Monday, mid 50s for Tuesday and upper 50s by Wednesday.

Watch Ed Greene forecasting the weather on CBS4 newscasts at 5, 6, 6:30 and 10 p.m. Check out his bio, connect with him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter @EdGreeneCBS4.
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