City has first snowless April in 30 years, driest in 59 years

April is typically a pretty wet month in and around Denver, but this April was anything but. Instead of this month featuring our normal late-season snows, April featured hot, dry and windy conditions with fire danger present almost every day.

April normally brings the Denver area 8.8 inches of snow and 1.68 inches of rain. This month, Denver has picked up a trace of snow. Snow is measured in tenths of inches and a trace of snow is defined as less than half that amount. So, if we were to get very picky, Denver has picked up less than 0.05 inches of snow this April

There are eight other years in Denver’s weather history (which dates back to the 1870s) during which the city picked up a trace or less of snow during April.

The most recent time this has happened was in 1992, when there was 0 inches of snow reported. There are only three years in Denver’s weather history where no snow was reported in April.

Ultimately, there is not a major difference between getting 0 inches of snow and 0.05 inches of snow, so we are in rare company when it comes to the amount of snow we’ve gotten this month.

For rainfall, 0.01 inches of rain accumulated in Denver so far this April. A big deficit compared to the 1.68 inches that we should normally get. With just 0.01 inches of precipitation adding up this month — and with a tough forecast before month’s end — we will likely end this month as the driest April ever.

We have a weak storm that’s expected to swing by the state from Friday to Saturday. Current forecasts are showing a low 20% chance of rain showers in Denver on Friday.

If we somehow are able to squeeze a few light rain showers out of the atmosphere, we could get bumped from the No. 1 driest April.

April 1963 currently holds the No. 1 spot for the driest on record with just 0.03 inches of rain. It sounds a bit dramatic, but it’s true, we’ll need to triple the amount of moisture we’ve already gotten this month in order to lose our current spot. That’s a testament to just how dry it’s been.

Denver started April under abnormally dry conditions, which is technically not an official drought. As of the April 19 update, Denver is back under moderate drought status with worsening conditions likely.