Denver Stood Up by Snow for the Sixth Straight Year; City Still Sitting Alone at the Table With Two Hot Chocolates

Denver, a city that printed "Mile High" on its letterhead and keeps a snow shovel in every garage like a fire extinguisher, has been stood up again. The average first snowfall arrives October 19. It is now October 25. The shovels have started seeing other people.

This is not a hiccup. 9NEWS meteorologist Chris Bianchi announced that "2026 will mark the 6th straight year with a later-than-average first snow." Six years is not running late. Six years is a forwarding address.

The numbers read like a breakup letter typed into a spreadsheet. As of Sunday, Denver International Airport had logged 0.0 inches for the season, against a normal of 3.9 inches by this date. That is a 100 percent shortfall, a figure usually reserved for New Year's resolutions, group projects and the Broncos' patience.

Instead of snow, the city got sunshine with a smug attitude. On October 21 the forecast high was 77 degrees, about 14 above normal. October opened as Denver's second-warmest start on record, averaging 62.6 degrees and losing gold only to 2024. Denver is now competing against its own past for the title of Most Arizona Place in Colorado, and it keeps finishing second, which is also how its snow arrives.

Sunday brought weather, technically. Denver7 forecast light rain for the metro and a couple of inches of snow only above 8,000 to 9,000 feet, which is snow's way of saying it will see you at the cabin. Denver sits at 5,280 feet. Snow has looked at the Mile High City and decided one mile is not high enough, a level of altitude snobbery previously practiced only by Coloradans toward Texans.

Then the forecast turns cruel. Highs climb into the mid-to-upper 60s Tuesday and Wednesday, with a possible return to the 70s Thursday and Friday. That is not autumn. That is a patio menu. Residents may carve jack-o'-lanterns in shorts, a look that says spooky season, beach season and emotional surrender all at once.

Halloween offers a sliver of hope. AccuWeather's lead long-range forecaster Paul Pastelok told USA TODAY some snow could fall in Colorado's higher elevations, and that it is too soon to say if it reaches Denver's elevation, "but it will be close." Close. Denver has heard close before. Close is what the ex says about getting back together. The National Weather Service's Brad Pugh was less romantic: "Forecast confidence is high that mild temperatures will prevail at the end of October." Translation: dress the kids as a heat dome.

History offers both comfort and humiliation. Denver's record for latest first snowfall is December 10, 2021. Second place is November 29, 2025, which is to say last year. The lateness leaderboard is being rewritten live, like a hall of fame where one guy keeps breaking his own record for not showing up.

Forecasters are clinging on. Denver7 says there is "an early signal for an active start to November." Meteorology has officially gone from predicting snow to reading its body language.

So the shovels wait by the door, the snow tires idle in the garage, and the city sits at its table for two, checking the window. The hot chocolate has gone cold. At least something in Denver finally did.