Prolonged ‘Welly weather,’ our first taste of winter and Lisa’s official first-snow prediction for Denver

Lisa Hidalgo and Ryan Warner were ready to bust out the rain boots for their September weather and climate chat.

Denver7’s chief meteorologist and the Colorado Public Radio host delved into a rare, days-long rainy stretch, our first taste of winter and the pair’s official first-snow-date prediction for Denver.

‘Welly weather’

“Two things happened this week that rarely happen in Colorado,” Warner said. “The first is that when I went to bed it was raining. I woke up and it was raining. And two, the rain meant I could wear my ‘Wellies,’ my Wellington boots.”

“These are rare events,” the green-rubber-boot-clad Warner quipped during the conversation.

Warner and Hidalgo held their conversation on the heels of an unusually rainy spell. In Colorado, rain storms often come and go quickly. This week’s rainfall, though, came during a slow-moving storm.

“It's more the direction of it and where it camps out,” Hidalgo explained. “So as you get a low pressure system rolling through the state, and we get all this moisture that wraps around the back side of it, it jams up against the foothills. It's called an upslope flow.”

In the winter, such a storm would’ve meant inches of snow in Denver. With September highs in the 50s, though, it came down as rain in town as it snowed in the high country.

First taste of winter

The National Weather Service in Boulder estimated Tuesday that “a widespread 5-10 inches” of snow fell at the highest elevations – above 10,500 to 11,000 feet – during the September 22-23 storm.

Hidalgo noted things would quickly warm up after what was the area’s first winter weather advisory of the season.

“But this is just a hint of what's to come,” she said. “And, obviously, we're going to see a lot more alerts as we get into fall and into winter.”

When will Denver see its first measurable snow?

On average, the first snowfall in Denver happens on Oct. 18. The window has already passed for our earliest first snow, which happened on Sept. 3. The latest first snow in Denver is Dec. 10 – Lisa’s birthday.

With all of that in consideration, Hidalgo predicted this year’s first snow in Denver would fall on Oct. 24.

Warner’s guess? A potentially soggy evening of trick-or-treating after an Oct. 29 first snow.

More weather in-depth

Lisa and Ryan touched on studies on potential connections between both lightning and snowmelt on Colorado’s year-round fire season. They also discussed a study that suggests the eastern half of Colorado is drying out faster than the western half.

For more in-depth weather analysis, watch their full weather and climate chat in the video player below: