Winter Storm

Here's How Early in the Fall It Has Snowed In Your City

At a Glance

Cities in the far northern United States and Rockies have seen accumulating snow as early as September.
October is the month with the record-earliest measurable snow for many cities in the Midwest and Northeast.
Snow has coated the ground in several southern locations during November.

Fall's arrival marks the beginning of increasingly cold air sweeping across the nation, and of course, that means the potential of the first snows in parts of the Lower 48.

How early it can snow in your area depends on simple factors such as geographic location and elevation as well as weather patterns from year-to-year.

For some, the record earliest snow is in September or even late August, while others haven't seen the first flakes fly until November.

Plotted on the map below is the month that the earliest measurable snow was recorded for select cities across the Lower 48. The National Weather Service considers measurable snow an accumulation of 0.1 inches or more.

The colored dots represent the month of the earliest measurable snow for the locations shown.

September

Many locations from the Rockies to the northern Plains, northern Great Lakes and northern New England have received their earliest measurable snow in September.

Here are a few of the cities and the specific date of their record earliest accumulating snow:

Denver: Sept. 3, 1961
Billings, Montana: Sept. 7, 1962
Marquette, Michigan: Sept. 13, 1923
Salt Lake City: Sept. 17, 1965
Flagstaff, Arizona: Sept. 19, 1965
Minneapolis/St. Paul: Sept. 24, 1985
Fargo, North Dakota: Sept. 25, 1912
Omaha, Nebraska: Sept. 29, 1985
Burlington, Vermont: Sept. 30, 1992

Although it's not shown on the map, Great Falls, Montana, once received measurable snow as early as Aug. 22. That happened in 1992.

October

A slew of cities from the Midwest to the Great Lakes and Northeast have received their record first accumulating snow in October. The same weather system was responsible for bringing several cities their earliest snow in a few instances.

Boston: Oct. 10, 1979
Baltimore: Oct. 10, 1979
Washington: Oct. 10, 1979
Philadelphia: Oct. 10, 1979
Chicago: Oct. 12, 2006
Detroit: Oct. 12, 2006
Pittsburgh: Oct. 18, 1992
Indianapolis: Oct. 18, 1989
Cincinnati: Oct. 19, 1989
New York: Oct. 21, 1952
Seattle: Oct. 27, 1971
Portland, Oregon: Oct. 29, 1935

November

The South is last when it comes to the record earliest measurable snow. Many cities along the Interstate 20 and Interstate 40 corridors have received accumulating snow as early as November.

Imagine kicking off the month with a coating of snow in Dallas-Fort Worth or a 3-inch blanket of snow in the South Carolina capital before Thanksgiving.

Columbia, South Carolina: Nov. 19, 1901
Dallas-Fort Worth: Nov. 2, 1951
Atlanta: Nov. 11, 1968
Raleigh: Nov. 6, 1953
Memphis: Nov. 2, 1951
Richmond, Virginia: Nov. 5, 1962

Of course, all of the dates mentioned above are on the record-breaking early end of the spectrum. The average first accumulating snow typically arrives later in the season, as illustrated by the map below.