March in Denver is known for big snow storms, rapidly changing weather and, usually, an early taste of spring-like warmth.

But it’s usually not known for the persistent, bitter cold that’s enveloped the region all month long.

With an average temperature of 29.7 degrees through Monday, Denver was running more than nine degrees below average for the month, according to the National Weather Service in Boulder. Fourteen of 18 days this month have featured below average temperatures, including seven days at least 11 degrees below average.

If March were only 18 days long, the average monthly temperature of 29.7 degrees would tie Denver’s fourth-coldest March on record (1906). The coldest March on record in Denver was 26.4 degrees set in 1912. But since March runs 31 days, there are another 13 days for the mercury to recover, and we’ll see some non-winter jacket weather — finally — later this week.

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A big warm-up is in store for the area later this week, and that’ll help bump up the average March temperature. Temperatures are forecast to rocket into the upper 50s by Thursday, a tick above seasonable levels. The rest of the month looks fairly mild, though a possible pattern change early next week may bring another shot of colder air.

Even with the warm-up, though, this month may well end up being the city’s coldest March in several decades. No March in the last 50 years has finished with an average monthly temperature below 33.5 degrees, a figure that looks in jeopardy considering just how cold the first half of the month has been.

An Arctic blast of cold air that moved through the first week of the month, coupled with the cold temperatures from last week’s bomb cyclone, have combined to keep Denver bitterly cold this March.

Chris Bianchi is a meteorologist for WeatherNation TV.

Denver’s average high for Tuesday, the final full day of winter, is 56 degrees.