KUSA — The first dusting of snow was visible on the high mountain peaks on Friday. This always stirs up a bit of excitement, but combine that with a record low temperature of 46 degrees in Denver Monday morning, and people are really starting to wonder if winter is coming early.
This comes after Arapahoe Basin Ski Area posted a picture of some light snow on the peaks above the lifts. Viewer Marsha Hobert, meanwhile, uploaded a photo to 9NEWS showing some light snow on top of Mt. Evans.
Believe it or not, this is perfectly normal, and doesn’t necessarily indicate an early winter is on the way.
People got excited last year when a time-lapse of people trouncing around in a couple inches of fresh snow on Pikes Peak hit the feeds the news. That was August 10 -- seven days earlier than this year.
A big early snowstorm hit the high country on Oct. 3, 2017. Snow lovers on Loveland Pass dreamed of a building early snowpack, but it was several weeks until the powder returned.
Then, on Oct. 9, 2017, things were looking real nice for an early winter as the Denver metro area got hit with its first measurable October snow accumulation in three years. But, we wouldn’t get our next measurable snowfall until more than two months later -- on Dec. 14.
The average date of the first snow in Denver is Oct. 18, but we’ve only matched or beat that date twice in the last 10 years.
The longest we’ve had to wait for our first snow was Nov. 21. That was in 1934, although we came close to that two years ago, when that first snow came on Nov. 17.
Denver has never had measurable snow in August, but we do average one inch of snow in September. Denver’s earliest snow in history was Sept. 3,,1961, but we haven’t had measurable September snow in 18 years.
The stats don’t favor much snow in Denver before November, and neither does the climate forecast.
The three-month temperature outlook from NOAA is calling for above average temperatures through the end of October, but with above average precipitation for most of the state, which could mean more early snow on those peaks.
