Tuesday’s storm brought a few inches of snow to Denver and the suburbs. It was a welcome break after an extremely dry December, but the area is still running far behind normal winter trends.
Last month, the city saw a single day of snowfall totaling 1.4 inches, compared to a norm of 6.6 inches across five days, according to the National Weather Service. The most significant precipitation was a rainstorm on Christmas Day.
The city’s average December temperature was 8.3 degrees above normal, per NWS.
Denver is in severe drought, but other parts of the state fare better
In all, 2024 saw the eighth driest and the ninth warmest December in Denver’s record books. It has resulted in unusually dry soil and an official condition of severe drought for Denver as of Dec. 31.
Man-made climate change has come with higher temperatures across Colorado, but it’s difficult to track the effects at the local level, according to the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
The board found that Denver has seen a “slight” decrease in the frequency of larger storms. But that effect didn’t show up to the north in Fort Collins.
This year, the mountains are doing better than the urban corridor for moisture. The basins of the central Colorado mountains are reporting just about typical snowpack for this time of year.
So, enjoy the snow and hope for more.
More snow facts, for the moisture superfans out there
Also, if you’re curious, more facts from NWS, which has records dating to the 1880s:
- Denver’s snowiest December ever was in 1913, with a reported 57 inches of snow.
- The snowiest December in recent years was 2006 with nearly 30 inches reported
- There were three years in which the records captured only a trace of December snow in the city: 1905, 1906 and 2002.
- 2016-17 was one of the city’s worst snow seasons ever, with just 21.8 inches reported. The winters of 2001, 2005, 2010 and 2017 are also among the worst.
