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Coloradans remember the blizzard of 2003

Exactly 13 years ago, Susan Sabol's son was a one year old playing in snowfall taller than he was.

<p>Denver did not look like this exactly 13 years ago.</p>

Exactly 13 years ago, Susan Sabol's son was a one year old playing in snowfall taller than he was.

"It's a fun family photo that we remember of the snow being taller than him and now he's 5'7, so he's taller than the snow," Sabol said.

In 2003, snow started falling on St. Patrick's Day and did not stop for three days until nearly 32 inches was dumped on the ground.

"Neighbors helped each other kind of shovel out," Sabol said.

Jessica Levental was living in San Francisco at the time, but she was in the process of moving to Denver.

"Middle of March, flower are coming up in California and in Denver, they closed DIA for three days and roofs are collapsing," Levental said. "This is what I'm hearing and I'm moving there."

The Blizzard of 2003 was the second snowiest storm in Denver's recorded history. In 1913, 46 inches of snow blanketed the Mile High City.

But. both Sabol and Levental say these storms are not the norm.

"We have quite mild winters which I don't like people to know about," Levental said. "Whenever I meet people in other states, they say, oh, especially on the coasts, 'It's a pretty cold winter there.' I say, yeah, very cold, bitterly cold."

Sabol says blizzards like the one in 2003 keep that perception going.

"It's one of those secrets of Denver that you don't get much snow in Denver," Sabol said.

In Denver, the Blizzard of 2003 was dubbed "The Storm of the Century". For Sabol, that would be her second. She lived in Philadelphia in 1993 for that city's "Storm of the Century."

"Apparently, yeah, I don't know what that says about me," Sabol said, laughing. "Well, it was a different century, '93 (and 2003) are different centuries. So, I guess technically they can both be the storm of the century."

Levental says she wants people outside of Colorado to keep thinking that Denver has terrible weather.

"Almost every winter, there is one big blizzard and that's how people perceive us," Levental said.

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