When Does It Start Snowing? The Average First-Snow Date for Every Major US City
The first measurable snow of the season averages November 6 in Denver and holds off until December 22 in Washington, DC. Across the northern US that first snow now arrives a few days to a week later than it did in the 1970s. Here's the average first-snow date for 18 major cities, from 55 years of NOAA records.
If you're asking “when does it start snowing?” the honest answer is: it depends enormously on which city you live in, and the spread is bigger than most people guess. The first measurable snow — a day with at least 0.1 inch (2.54 mm) recorded at the local NOAA station — arrives in early November for the high, cold interior and not until the week after Christmas for the mild coasts. That's a nearly two-month range across the Lower 48.
We averaged the first-snow date at each city's primary NOAA station over roughly the last 30 seasons. Denver leads the majors at November 6, then Minneapolis (Nov 7) and the Great Lakes snow belts of Syracuse, Buffalo and Cleveland (Nov 9–10). Chicago waits until November 21, New York until December 15, and the Pacific Northwest — Seattle and Portland — usually doesn't see measurable snow until January, if at all. Below is the full ranked table, why the dates spread the way they do, and the quieter finding buried in the records: in every northern city we checked, that first snow is now creeping later.
First Snow Date by City, Earliest to Latest
Average date of the first measurable snow (0.1″ or more) at each city's primary NOAA station, ranked earliest to latest. “Seasons” is the number of snow seasons in the average; a few Western cities have shorter measurable-snow records, noted below.
| City | Avg. first snow | Seasons | Region |
|---|---|---|---|
| Denver, CODenver Intl | November 6 | 22 | High Plains |
| Minneapolis, MNMSP Intl | November 7 | 27 | Upper Midwest |
| Syracuse, NYSyracuse Hancock | November 9 | 31 | Central NY (snow belt) |
| Buffalo, NYBuffalo Niagara | November 10 | 31 | Lake Erie snow belt |
| Cleveland, OHCleveland Hopkins | November 10 | 31 | Lake Erie snow belt |
| Salt Lake City, UTSLC Intl | November 11 | 31 | Great Basin |
| Milwaukee, WIMitchell AP | November 15 | 31 | Great Lakes |
| Pittsburgh, PAPittsburgh Intl | November 18 | 31 | Appalachia |
| Detroit, MIDetroit Metro | November 20 | 31 | Great Lakes |
| Chicago, ILO'Hare Intl | November 21 | 31 | Great Lakes |
| Boston, MABoston Logan | November 29 | 31 | Northeast |
| Kansas City, MOKC Intl | November 29 | 31 | Central Plains |
| St. Louis, MOLambert Intl | December 3 | 31 | Midwest |
| New York, NYCentral Park | December 15 | 31 | Northeast coast |
| Philadelphia, PAPhila Intl | December 19 | 31 | Mid-Atlantic |
| Washington, DCReagan National | December 22 | 31 | Mid-Atlantic |
| Seattle, WASea-Tac | January 1 | 17 | Pacific NW |
| Portland, ORPDX | January 3 | 24 | Pacific NW |
Measurable = 0.1 inch (2.54 mm) or more in a day; lighter flurries that leave only a trace come earlier and aren't counted. Denver's reliable measurable-snow record at the current airport starts in the mid-1990s (22 seasons); Seattle and Portland have fewer measurable-snow seasons because most of their winters simply don't reach the threshold. You can pull the raw daily record for any of these on our city pages, e.g. Denver and Chicago.
Why the First Snow Comes Nearly Two Months Apart Across the Country
Four things decide when a city sees its first flakes, and every date in the table is some combination of them.
Elevation buys an early snow — the Denver effect
Denver sits a mile above sea level, which is why it tops the list (Nov 6) despite being no farther north than Philadelphia. Air cools roughly 3.5°F for every thousand feet of elevation, so a cold front that brings rain to a lowland city drops snow on the Front Range. Salt Lake City (Nov 11) rides the same altitude bonus.
Latitude and a lack of ocean — Minneapolis and the interior
Minneapolis (Nov 7) is far north and deeply continental — no ocean anywhere near it to slow the autumn cool-down. Interior cities lose their warmth fast once the sun angle drops, so the first freeze and the first snow arrive close together. Kansas City and St. Louis, farther south but still landlocked, land in late November and early December.
Lake effect — the Syracuse, Buffalo and Cleveland cluster
Syracuse (Nov 9), Buffalo and Cleveland (both Nov 10) get their first snow earlier than their latitude alone would suggest, because the still-warm Great Lakes throw moisture into the first cold outbreaks of the season. As Arctic air crosses open, unfrozen water in November, it picks up heat and moisture and dumps it downwind as lake-effect snow — the same machine that makes these the snowiest big cities in the East.
Ocean moderation — why the coasts wait
New York (Dec 15), Philadelphia (Dec 19) and Washington, DC (Dec 22) all snow later than their latitude implies, because the Atlantic holds summer's warmth into December and the cities' own urban heat adds a nudge. The Pacific does it even more emphatically: Seattle (Jan 1) and Portland (Jan 3) sit under a mild marine flow all winter, so measurable snow is a January rarity, not a November certainty.
First Snow Is Arriving Later — the Quiet Finding in the Records
When we split the records into a 1970–1989 window and a 2005–2024 window, the first measurable snow moved later in every northern city we could measure. It's the same signal, from the cold end, that we found in the first fall freeze: autumn is holding its warmth a little longer each decade.
| City | First snow now arrives… |
|---|---|
| Detroit, MI | +7 days later |
| Syracuse, NY | +6 days later |
| Chicago, IL | +6 days later |
| Minneapolis, MN | +4 days later |
| Boston, MA | +2 days later |
Detroit's first snow slipped about a week later; Chicago and Syracuse six days; Minneapolis four; Boston two. The shifts are smaller than the two-and-a-half-week move we measured for the first fall frost — snow needs both cold and moisture, so it's noisier year to year — but the direction is the same in every city, and none moved earlier. A warmer November takes a later, deeper cold snap to produce that first accumulating snow.
First Flurries vs. First Measurable Snow vs. Snow That Sticks
“First snow” means three different things, and the dates above are the middle one. The first flurries — flakes in the air that melt on contact and leave a trace under 0.1 inch — often come one to three weeks before the dates here, especially in the interior. The first measurable snow (0.1 inch or more in a day) is what we track, because it's the first snow that actually registers as a number in the record and the one people mean when they say “it snowed.” The first accumulating snow that sticks and covers the ground usually follows another week or two later, once the ground itself is cold enough to hold it. If you're asking when you'll first need to scrape the windshield, add a week or so to the table.
Look Up the Day It First Snowed in Your City
If your city isn't in the table, you can reconstruct its first-snow history yourself. Use our weather-on-this-day lookup to check the conditions on any past date in your town, and watch this winter's snow and cold records land in near-real time on our records-broken tracker. First snow is about timing; if you want to know how much falls once winter is underway, see the snowiest cities and places in America. For the deepest cold that follows the first snow, our coldest cities in America ranking covers where winter bites hardest, and everything ties back to the US weather records hub.
What This Winter Holds After the First Snow
The first snow is winter's opening line, not its whole story. This year the bigger question is what a strong El Niño does to the pattern that follows — historically it nudges the northern tier milder and drier and the southern tier wetter, which can push some northern cities' heaviest snow later into the season even when the first flakes arrive on schedule. First snow is also the cold-season bookend to the first fall freeze: both are creeping later, and both are reading the same warming autumn off the same 55 years of records.
How We Computed This
For each city we selected the densest long-record NOAA GHCN-Daily station near the city center — the primary airport in almost every case, with New York using the long-running Central Park record and Portland OR using PDX. Snowfall is stored in millimetres; “measurable” is the first day of a season with at least 2.54 mm (0.1 inch). We defined a snow season as July 1 to June 30 so a December-into-January winter counts as one event, found each season's first measurable snow date, and averaged that day-of-year over roughly the last 30 seasons (season year 1995 onward), requiring enough valid seasons to be meaningful. The “arriving later” figures compare the average first-snow date over 1970–1989 against 2005–2024 for the cities with a deep enough record in both windows. This is a station-level analysis, not a full metro average, and cities with naturally sparse measurable snow (Seattle, Portland OR, Denver's current-airport record) carry fewer seasons, which we've labeled. Data verified August 20, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does it usually start snowing in the US?
It depends on where you are. In the northern tier and interior — Denver, Minneapolis, the Great Lakes snow belts — the first measurable snow (0.1 inch or more) typically arrives in early-to-mid November. Across the Midwest and interior Northeast it comes in late November to early December, and along the mid-Atlantic and Pacific coasts it holds off until mid-December to early January. Denver averages November 6; Washington, DC averages December 22.
What US city gets the earliest first snow?
Of the major cities, Denver (average November 6) and Minneapolis (November 7) see the first measurable snow earliest — Denver because of its mile-high elevation, Minneapolis because of its far-north, deep-continental position. Mountain towns at higher elevations get snow even earlier, but among big metros these two lead.
When does it first snow in New York, Chicago, and Denver?
On average, the first measurable snow falls around November 6 in Denver, November 21 in Chicago, and December 15 in New York City, based on NOAA station records from roughly the last 30 seasons. Any single year can run a couple of weeks either side of these averages.
Is it starting to snow later than it used to?
Yes, modestly. Comparing 1970–1989 with 2005–2024, the first measurable snow is arriving later in every northern city we checked — about a week later in Detroit (+7 days), six days later in Chicago and Syracuse, four days later in Minneapolis, and two days later in Boston. It is the cold-season mirror of the later first frost we found in the same records.
What counts as the "first snow" — flurries or accumulation?
This analysis uses the first measurable snow: a day with at least 0.1 inch (2.54 mm) recorded at the city’s NOAA station. Flurries that melt on contact and leave a trace below 0.1 inch come earlier and are not counted. First accumulating snow that sticks and covers the ground usually lags the first measurable snow by a week or two.
Sources & Method
First-snow climatology: NOAA GHCN-Daily via our database (1970–present), computed as described in the methodology above. For the broader warming context, see the US EPA's Length of Growing Season indicator and our own data sources & methodology page. Explore records and extremes across the country on our US weather records hub.