If you take the screen shot of the forecast for Denver out of the present day context, you could easily confuse this for a week in mid-April. Warm, windy, never below freezing… but nope, this is how we’ll end February 2026, and honestly, you could sub this in for a lot of the month. It’s felt anything other than February. Four times this month did Denver record a TRACE of snow, technically it will conclude the month with NO measurable snow, the first time since 2009 and I believe only the second time in history.
This has been the theme all winter, if we’re being real. It’s been one of the less snowy seasons I can recall in many years of living here, and certainly the least snowy season here in my second stint. It’s getting scary to think about the fire season ahead, and certainly nothing in the long range heading into the first week of March gives a lot of hope for any of that to change. March and April get up there in terms of best snow months for the Colorado Front Range, with March being a biggie. We’ll see if we get lucky or not, cause we need a couple big dumpers to make a dent in the deficit. It’s dry, even the mountains have struggled this year (although last couple storms have done some good up there). But we need it, and hopefully it’ll come in traditional March fashion.
What does this mean for chase season here? Who knows… not an answer, but its the one you’re gonna get. But I think the severe weather season is likely more dictated by recent moisture than the overall winter season. For instance in 2023, we had one of the most active Colorado tornado seasons on record coming out of one of the wettest Mays on record. Obviously we had a much snowier winter ahead of that, but it’s no coincidence the season in late May through August was gangbusters after a very wet streak (that went well into June). So one could surmise if we get a good bit of moisture in March and April, it could certainly fuel a bigger season than what one would think coming out of this dry spell here. But only time will tell. I’m not prepared to make any forecast on the Colorado storm season right now; I’m just trying to find some hope of impactful snow on for the eastern half of the state. Hell, I’d take a long, steady rain at this point. We can’t be choosey right now. But if this all keeps going in the direction is has been, the only storms we’ll be talking about this Spring and Summer are firestorms.
