Longmont saw record breaking snowfall in March, but don’t put those snow shovels away just yet, because April historically has shown the potential to be plenty snowy too, according to local meteorologists.
“The snowfall total for March 2021 is 29.0 inches as of 7 am (Tuesday). I checked the Longmont snowfall records dating back to 1910 and this does appear to be the snowiest March on record, breaking the record of 26.0 inches in March 1970,” Longmont weather observer Greg Byrd wrote in an email.
Byrd also noted that the snowfall discrepancies from other agencies like AccuWeather, which reported the total snowfall in Longmont for March was 22.5 inches, is partially due to where snowfall measurements are taken by the various meteorologists.
Referring to the major storm that paralyzed the Front Range the second weekend of the Month, Byrd explained, “My 24.9 inches was recorded at my location in northeast Longmont, which is consistent with the 25.5 inch measurement recorded by a National Weather Service employee located about one mile northeast of my location.”
He also stated that parts of south Longmont received smaller accumulations of snow during the memorable March wintry blast.
“I should note that the Longmont weather records since 2010 have been based on several locations in Longmont,” Byrd added.
The 30-year average snowfall for Longmont is 8.3 inches in March and 5.4 inches in April. The 30-year seasonal average in Longmont is 46.5 inches.
Snowfall in April could potentially give local residents plenty more shoveling practice because “April is the second snowiest month on average,” Byrd stated.
The season snowfall total to-date as reported by the Times-Call is 59 inches.
According to retired National Weather Service Longmont meteorologist Dave Larison in north Longmont who still measures snowfall, the March total was 22.8 inches, the season total is 57.7 inches and the typical snowfall to date average is 40 inches.
Last April, Longmont saw the fifth snowiest April on record with 22 inches with a season ending of 77.7 inches of snow, according to Byrd. Longmont recorded 14.6 inches of snow by mid-April 2020 and was walloped two times in four days, that month.
The snowiest April on record was April 1920 with a record-breaking 51 inches, according to Byrd.
May could also see more than its typical snow total of eight-tenths of an inch. A total of 7.1 inches fell in May 2013, one of the snowiest Mays on record for the city. The snowiest May in Longmont is believed to have been 1978, when an estimated 17 inches fell May 5-to-7. But official data from that storm is incomplete.
According to data and current climate forecasts, Longmont could see much of its April snowfall near the end of the month, when temperatures are expected to plunge below average.
