Weather Tidbits: Average First Snow Climatology

We’ll be discussing average first snowfall in this edition of weather tidbits. The date of the average first snowfall is heavily dictated by elevation and latitude. For the higher terrain from Montana through Wyoming and Colorado, the average first snow is in October. Along a chunk of the northern plains, the average first snow is in early November. There’s no date down toward the gulf states since snow is too rare there. Throughout northern New York and New England, the average first snow is around early November. Generally, for Delmarva, the average first snow is sometime in late December and early January. Specifically, in Salisbury, the date is January 3. That is the average date for the first snowfall 0.1″ or greater based off of 1991-2020 climatology.