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Denver’s expected to feel a touch of cold, wet weather tomorrow, March 3, but it’s much more of an outlier than the norm. In fact, we just came off one of the hottest, driest Mile High Februarys ever recorded, part of one unseasonably warm winter.
Although you might be enjoying the extra golfing, hiking and sunbathing in December, January and February, plenty of us are freaked out. On top of red-flag fire warnings aplenty and regular blackouts from Xcel Energy, historical weather records show we’re seeing the unseen this winter.
Here are six troubling highs and lows from the 2025-2026 Colorado winter.
Record High Temperature on Christmas
According to the National Weather Service, 2025’s average temperature of 52.8 is tied for the ninth-warmest on record since 1872, and the year ended on a warm note, too. Six days in late December either broke or tied Denver’s record high for temperature, including December 21, 22, 24 and 25, with a Christmas Day high of 71 degrees. Last year also didn’t see snow until November 29, the second-longest recorded wait in Denver history. So much for a white Christmas.
138-Year Low in Snowfall
Colorado’s mountain snowpack was off to an all-time slow start this winter, but has since slightly corrected itself out of record-low projections thanks to several dumps over the last six weeks. The same cannot be sad for Denver, however. Through Monday, March 2, Denver has recorded its lowest amount of snow — 13.4 inches — in a winter since 1888, according to 9News meteorologist Chris Bianchi, who points out that Denver seen less snow this winter than parts of Hawaii and North Carolina.
92-Year High in Heat
As Denver breaks bad records in snowfall this winter, it’s setting highs that haven’t been seen in almost a century. According to Bianchi and NWS records, Denver’s average temperature of 39.6 degrees from December 1 to February 28 was the warmest stretch in 92 years, and the second-warmest since 1888. During this stretch, Denver often found itself with a warmer daily high than places in Arizona and Florida, hitting over sixty degrees 41 times.
Constant Wildfire Warnings
On top of unusually high heat and unseasonably low snow, the Denver metro and northern Colorado has faced numerous days of extreme wind, red flag warnings, electricity shutdowns and wildfire evacuations. Hundreds of thousands of Xcel customers in the Front Range have faced planned blackouts during days of wind high gusts, to the chagrin of some customers. Several of these high-wind days have resulted wildfires this winter, including one in a grass field off the highway in Thornton and another in Boulder near Chautauqua Park. Both fires resulted in evacuations but were quickly contained by local fire departments. Other parts of the state saw larger amounts of acreage burn this winter, however, including Yuma County, which saw over 16,000 acres burn during high winds late December
Weirdest Weather Map of All Time?
Colorado is no stranger to fluctuating and spontaneous weather. The state has been under both blizzard and wildfire warnings more than once this year, with Denver located in the middle of perhaps the most batshit local weather map in state history, courtesy of 9News. On February 17, the Western Slope was under a blizzard warning the north, south and eastern blocks of the state were hit with extreme wind and fire warnings. The forecast was largely correct: Denver, located in the middle of the weather map, faced some slight winds as the rest of the state froze and blew over.
Call it the Mile High eye of the storm.
