DENVER — Snowstorms are most memorable when they have personal impacts or when they happen on a special day – like Thanksgiving. But snow on Turkey Day is a rare thing to see in Denver.
In fact, if there ends up being more than one inch of snow on the ground before midnight on Thursday, 2023 would be the snowiest Thanksgiving in 36 years and could make the list of snowiest Thanksgivings of all time.
Although, the forecast is for just under an inch between 10 p.m. and midnight, and a total of 2-4 inches combined with the snow on Friday.
It’s only snowed more than one inch on Thanksgiving three times over the last 74 years. Thanksgiving 1987 was the biggest storm, with just 5 inches.
But that’s just on Thanksgiving Day. The four-day holiday altogether, counting Thursday through Sunday, has been impacted many times by snow, including Denver’s ninth-biggest snowstorm in history in 1983.
That storm hit on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, grounding flights and delaying holiday travel out of Stapleton International Airport.
But that’s the only year where more than 6 inches of snow fell in Denver over the Thanksgiving holiday. A handful of 5-inch storms rounds out the top 5 snowiest of all time.
Snow has also disrupted Thanksgiving travel in the days leading up to the holiday. In 2019, 8 to 12 inches fell in Denver two days before Thanksgiving.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Colorado Climate
9NEWS+
9NEWS+ has multiple live daily shows including 9NEWS Mornings, Next with Kyle Clark and 9NEWS+ Daily, an original streaming program. 9NEWS+ is where you can watch live breaking news, weather updates, and press conferences. You can also replay recent newscasts and find videos on demand of our top stories, local politics, investigations and Colorado specific features.
To download 9NEWS+ on Roku search for KUSA.
To download 9NEWS+ on Fire TV search for 9NEWS.