What’s the biggest May snowstorm in Denver’s history?

As I write this on on Monday afternoon, it’s 71 degrees in Denver. By Wednesday morning, the city could be under half a foot of snow…

The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch for the Denver metro area beginning Tuesday evening and extending through Wednesday afternoon, with 3 to 9 inches of heavy, wet snow expected — a swing dramatic enough to potentially place the storm among the largest May snowfalls in Denver’s 144-year recorded weather history.

If Denver receives 6 or more inches — the high end of some forecasts — it would rank among the top five May snowstorms in the city’s history and could be the largest snowstorm of the entire 2025-26 season, surpassing the 8.5 inches that fell March 6.

Snow in May is not rare in Denver — about 70 percent of Mays have produced at least some measurable accumulation, according to the Denver Post’s WeatherNation meteorologist Chris Bianchi. But the big ones are memorable. Here are the largest May snowstorms in Denver’s recorded history:

• May 1-5, 1898: 15.5 inches — Denver’s snowiest May on record. The storm lasted five full days and never dropped below 29 degrees, producing heavy, wet snow that likely caused widespread tree damage. Two days after the foot-plus accumulation, it was 65 degrees.
• May 25-26, 1950: 10.7 inches
• May 15-16, 1957: 8.8 inches
• May 2, 1944: 8.3 inches
• May 17, 1983: 7.1 inches
• May 29, 1975: 5.6 inches
• May 20-21, 1931: 4.6 inches

Denver averages just 1.1 to 1.7 inches of snow in May, depending on the dataset. The city’s latest measurable snow on record fell on June 2, 1951.

The last time Denver recorded measurable May snow was 2022, when 2.3 inches fell.