It's December and it hasn't snowed in Denver yet. That's never been recorded | Hacker News Reader

It's December and it hasn't snowed in Denver yet. That's never been recorded

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94 pointsBender31 comments

I live 2 blocks west of Denver proper and we have had multiple snows this year.

Accumulation has been low in both cases, and this year has certainly felt uncharacteristically warm, but i do wonder what constitutes "a measurable amount".

i do wonder what constitutes "a measurable amount"

The National Weather service has a standard for a "measurable amount" of rain. I think it's 0.01 inches, or 0.1 inches or something like that. Anything less is called a "trace."

Presumably, since they're scientists, they have a similar standard for a measurable amount of snow.

Came here to post the same. It snowed in November, at least in N Denver (proper). Weird claim to make. The more interesting fact is about resorts delaying opening like they talk about here.

> but i do wonder what constitutes "a measurable amount".

The official definition is 0.1 inches as measured at Denver International Airport.

I live in Denver as well.. and it “snowed” one time but was mixed with sleet and not a measurable amount. You may be misremembering, but we’ve had effectively no precipitation in the latter half of the year: http://www.thorntonweather.com/noaa/snow.php

I live on the 9th floor downtown with a clear view facing northeast.

Additionally from the article:

> "Denver has just recorded their second-least snowiest November," with no measurable snow observed -- meaning they had some flurries, but nothing accumulated.”

I agree more or less with with how you remember it.

The evening before Thanksgiving we got some flurries, and that’s about it. Nothing I’d call “measurable”.

In September I also recall a few pleasantly rainy days, but overall it’s been uncharacteristically dry and warm. It’s going to cool off next week, but it’s mostly been in the 60s lately with a few days in the 50s or 70s.

I also only blew out my sprinklers last weekend because we’ve only had one or two light frosts. That’s the latest ever for me by over a month.

British Columbia saw some record highs too recently. Penticton, BC was 22.5 °C and Summerland, BC was 20.7 °C

> Just after 1 p.m., the temperature in Penticton reached a new daily high of 22.5 C.

> That's more than 10 C warmer than the previous heat record in the city for Dec. 1 of 11.2 C set in 2012, and vastly hotter than the historical daily average of 3.4 C.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/daily-heat-r...

I'm not absolutely certain, but I suspect that this is the first time a temperature over 20 °C has been recorded anywhere in BC during the month of December. Even Vancouver's record high for December was only 15.4 °C:

https://vancouver.weatherstats.ca/almanac_monthly.html

I never thought I would see Summerland on hacker news. Heh.

I live in Arvada, a suburb of Denver, and it snowed a couple of inches here before Thanksgiving. I guess where they measure this in Denver didn’t get what they consider enough to count as a snowfall. Still a very odd year.

Greetings, neighbor! I was traveling at the time, but I did hear something about Denver getting some slight precipitation, but not enough to qualify as snowfall. Now, given your comment, I'm wondering if we got inches of snow here in Olde Town Arvada, or if maybe you're closer to the foothills.

Greetings neighbors! I also live right by Olde Town. How fascinating. Let’s play some disc golf!

Hello! I’m next to the Arvada reservoir so more in the foothills.

How odd. West Wash Park and Boulder got some sleet as well as actual snowflakes, but nothing stuck around at all.

My wife and I grew up outside of Denver. We both remember vividly that the first big snow was expected, and almost guaranteed to happen around Halloween.

That happened this year... but only up in the mountains.

And this summer was the first summer in some years where the eastern half of the state wasn't in a drought. At the same time, western Colorado was bone-dry

https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/eastern-col...

Good point. Plenty of places not in the West have been having early snows this year. Chicago snowed a few times in October, and I just skied a pow day on Thanksgiving in Vermont, which is early for them.

And the big island of Hawaii.

Yes it did, down in Highlands Ranch we got at least a couple of inches. They measure at DIA (which is basically in Kansas) so no “official” snow.

I believe hr has a higher elevation which helps as well.

I blew my sprinklers out in southeast Washington just last night.

I’ve never waited this late before. I could probably wait another week before real cold sets in.

Weird times.

Hi there neighbor… (walla walla/ CP) When I first moved here, I asked someone if it was a normal winter. They said no. The next year I asked them if it was a normal summer. They said no… finally after 10 years of being here, I’ve come to the conclusion that we have cycles. Wouldn’t surprise me if this year is a bit like three or four years ago when we had that really bad freeze in February but otherwise a completely mild, snow-free winter.

I haven’t blown my sprinklers out and I don’t know if I will even bother. We get so few cold days, and even fewer in a row. Have to keep an eye on one of my chickens that has a large comb to make sure she doesn’t get cold, but other than that our winters are so easy.

The grass is still green here in the Austin area, which doesn't seem right even for central Texas.

It is a weird winter, that's for sure. Supposed to have snow by now, and it was 70+ the other day. Still mowing the lawn, and usually finish with that in October.

I think this year is a La Niña winter.

Yes La Niña conditions are expected to persist through the winter.

http://www.climate.gov/enso

I've noticed its also quite warm here in Canada too: It's only snowed twice so far (in Toronto), and melted after one day. It usually starts snowing right after Halloween, but thus far, we've had only slush-type snow come in during late November. I'm guessing this has to do with El Ninõ-like climate fluctuations.

An interesting note not covered is that supply chain disruption has caused a lot of the delays in ski resort openings.

For example, I was speaking to a manager at Saddleback Mountain in Maine a week ago, and they said they did not even have the snowmaking equipment in yet- they should/could have been making snow for several weeks by now.

They don't have old equipment they can use? Is it stuck on a boat or something?

I ordered a snowmaking machine from a place in Connecticut this summer and got it a few weeks later, right on time. Once the humidity drops enough to make some snow, I'll have a nice sledding hill in the back yard. Can't wait!

Saddleback is kind of a special case, this is it’s second year operating after a long hiatus.

Weather everywhere is extremely variable. Least snowfall since November of 1949, but Denver had one of the worst blizzards ever in January of that same year.

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