Will it snow on Halloween in Denver? Sorry, natives, it almost never does

Ask anyone who grew up in or around Denver about Halloween and you’ll probably hear about trick-or-treating in a snowsuit, with the princess costume hidden under a puffy coat. It’s one of the Front Range’s favorite stories. 9NEWS checked the record books, though, and Halloween snow is mostly a myth. Denver has had snow pile up on Halloween only 16 times in 139 years, which works out to about 12% of the time.

Even when it does snow, it usually isn’t much. Of those 16 snowy Halloweens, only four got more than 3 inches. The big exception was 1972. Denver got 8 inches of snow on Halloween, the high only reached 30 degrees, and another 5.8 inches fell the next day. That’s still the snowiest Halloween on record, and it’s probably why your parents still talk about it.

So why does it seem like it always snows? Partly because the season’s first snow often shows up right before the holiday. According to 9NEWS, the average date of Denver’s first snow is Oct. 18, and 42% of Denver’s first snows since 1948 have fallen between Oct. 10 and 29. It also gets cold. The coldest Halloween temperature ever recorded was 7 degrees, in 2019. On the other end, Halloween 2016 hit a record 79 degrees, and the average Halloween high is 57.2 degrees. Snow on the ground from a storm a day or two earlier or later probably helps the stories grow too.

As for this year, 9NEWS meteorologists say the week is mostly mild and dry, including Halloween which looks to be breezy with some clouds, low-60’s for daytime highs and overnight lows in the low-40’s. Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, which means more time for trick-or-treating. Bring a jacket just in case. It’s Colorado, after all, and it’s never a bad idea to pick a costume that fits over a coat.