Castle Rock Co Weather Climate Summary
January through March 2018
A statistical look and discussion of weather recorded for Castle Rock Colorado. This information was collected and recorded via weather stations, trained storm spotters and NWS reports for Castle Rock, Colorado. It is in no way an “official” record, just simply what was recorded for Castle Rock. These stats include snowfall, temperatures, precipitation, wind intensity and direction for the month.
January 2018
General Summary
Castle Rock General Weather Summary for February 2018 (Click the image to see it at full size)
January 2018 was a month marked by very warm temperatures, a few small snow events and a large amount of calm weather overall. While the month as a whole didn't seem to be too out of line with average on temperatures, some days had huge swings of warm temperatures which helped to drag the overall average up. The month finished near average on snowfall, which is good after how dry November and December were. Here's a look at the details of how January finished for 2018 in Castle Rock...
Temperature Statistics
While many days the temperatures were near average, some big numbers above average helped drag the month upwards.
You'll notice above that on many days the temperatures were near average or slightly above or below. If that continued all month we'd expect January 2018 to round out as a pretty average month however; notice the above average days, especially towards the middle and last part of the month. These huge swings upwards helped catapult the mean temperature for the month to well above average. Another interesting thing to note is the abnormally warm low (nighttime) temperatures that were experienced.
January 2018's mean temperature finished an astounding 2.93 degrees above average.
Precipitation/Snowfall Statistics
Only 2 storms contributed to January 2018's snowfall totals
Typically January is not one of the snowiest winter months so it doesn't take a ton of snowfall to reach average or above average numbers. Of the 8.2 inches we typically see, we were able to grind out a respectable 7.5 inches of snowfall. The main concentration of snow fell with a storm towards the latter half of the month. The storm system that hit late on January 21 and last into January 22 left a healthy storm total snowfall of 6.5 inches. If it were not for that one storm, the month would have ended well below average as the only other measurable snowfall was around one inch.
January 2018's total snowfall finished 0.7 below average.
Final Thoughts
Looks like January continued our trend of warmer than average temperatures, most of the Western U.S. was well above average while parts of the Southeastern U.S. saw slightly cooler than average temperatures. Luckily we did see enough snowfall to get close to average.
February 2018
General Summary
Castle Rock General Weather Summary for February 2018 (Click the image to see it at full size)
It might surprise some folks to learn that February was an average month in many aspects regarding weather. We saw just a tad over average snowfall and total liquid precipitation was just a tad below average. The big story was the temperatures, the month finished nearly 3 degrees below average... a welcome sight after how warm and dry our fall and winter have been.
Temperature Statistics
If you look at the graphs above, it's easy to see why the month finished below average. When looking at the mean temperature (average of the high and low temperature for the date) you'll notice that while we had some warm spells, a lot of the temperatures were below average for the month. In some cases, well below average!
Tuesday February 20th is highlighted in this frigid mean temperature. Record low high temperatures were set across the front range on this date.
A good example of some of the most extreme cold was on February 20th, were the recorded mean temperature was only 5.7 degrees. This is 28.05 degrees below normal!
February 2018's mean temperature finished 2.75 degrees below average.
Precipitation/Snowfall Statistics
Snowfall from January 1, 2018 through February 28, 2018 is very close to average
Snowfall for February 2018 finished just slightly above average. There are a couple of caveats to this good news though; February is typically one of our drier winter months in regards to snowfall so it doesn't take much to make it above average. Secondly, although January and February were near average on snowfall, if you look at the entire snowfall season from September 1... you'll notice that Castle Rock is nearly a foot below average on total snowfall. A couple of months at average won't make up for the extreme dryness we had earlier in the season.
February 2018's total snowfall finished 0.8 above average.
November and December 2017 were extremely dry and January and February were about average on snowfall. Average snow will not help us make up for this dry year, we need several above average months at this point.
Final Thoughts
The good news is that we did see snowfall in January and February this year, enough to make those months close to average. The bad news is that this amount of snow is simply not enough to get us out of the drought conditions we find ourselves in.
Drought status for Colorado as of the first week of March 2018
As we close out February 2018, many areas of Colorado's front range remain in Moderate Drought conditions. We've seen drought expanding across the Southwest corner of the state and even seen severe drought set in along the far Southeastern corner of Colorado. If we don't see significant moisture in the month of March, I suspect we will see severe drought conditions expand northward into and along Colorado's front range.
March 2018
Check back after the end of the month to see how March weather turned out!
