Denver’s record 224 days without snow is a sign of what’s to come with climate change
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This year marks the first time that the city of Denver has seen no measurable snow by Dec. 1 since snowfall records began in 1882. The last snowfall was 224 days ago and days may continue to fly by without much snowfall if drought conditions in ColoDenver’s record 224 days without snow is a sign of what’s to come with climate change
This year marks the first time that the city of Denver has seen no measurable snow by Dec. 1 since snowfall records began in 1882. The last snowfall was 224 days ago and days may continue to fly by without much snowfall if drought conditions in Colorado hold. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, all of Colorado is experiencing abnormally dry weather. Denver could see some rain and snow next week but this week has been a hot and dry one for the city. Wednesday tied the historic high for Dec. 1, with temperatures reaching 73 degrees. It isn’t just Colorado that has seen fewer flakes as the year winds down—according to the National Weather Service, just 11.1% of the lower 48 states has snow on the ground, making it the fourth mildest start to December since 2003. Prolonged drought conditions have led to a water shortage being declared for the Colorado River Basin for the first time ever. The basin supplies drinking water for nearly 40 million people across six states. Unsurprisingly, climate change is to blame for the drought conditions that developed in Colorado and across the West. According to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report released in September, the present drought “was caused by an unfortunate combination of variations in climate that led to a sequence of low precipitation seasons (most likely natural) beginning in the winter of 2019–20 and by both natural and human-caused warming.” Read more
