Why is March typically our snowiest month?
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - For some new to the area, you may have been fooled into thinking that Spring was just around the corner.
While it is, here in Colorado that often means worsening storms and a switch over to heavy, wet snow.
In fact, we're about to begin one of our snowiest periods of the season.
With severe conditions expected to continue overnight Monday and into Tuesday, people who make their money cleaning up after Mother Nature are already preparing.
Tom Flynn with Front Range Arborist has been in the tree service business for decades, "30 years in Colorado Springs, we've seen a lot from the big oscillation changes in temperatures to heavy wet snows, which is potentially what we may be facing tomorrow."
That, along with dangerous winds and blizzard conditions, Flynn says there's a particular type of tree that is especially vulnerable, "This time of year especially, it's the large pines and the evergreens that have most of the problem."
Heavy snow, leading to snapped limbs or worse as we steer into March which is typically Colorado's snowiest month.
Meteorologist Effrage Davis explains why, "We have daylight saving time. So, we spring forward and that hour allows for more sunlight here to last a little bit longer, which can add in convection and really increase the snow right here as systems move into that area."
She says it's mostly due to the sun cycle.
"The sunset staying out a little bit longer temperatures kind of start to increase a little bit longer, which allows for more snow to form. That's that's why we have a little bit more snow in March versus the winter months," Davis said.
Though the weather seems atypical right now, Effrage says the models appear to be on track.
"Our average here in March is around six inches. It's about 5.7. So, according to what the Climate Prediction Center is saying, we could see about 5.7 or maybe five or five kind of in that range is what they're predicting for this March."
Through it all though, Flynn says the show must go on, "Even though it may be really bad outside, kind of a snow day type of day, if there's damage to trees, we still get out and get our customers taken care of."
