“First Snow” Contest entries are in, but no white stuff on the horizon…

Thanks to everyone that entered our 2019 First Snow Contest. We briefly review the entries, which actually favor a later date than Boulder’s climatology would suggest. Contest prizes and recognition will be awarded in the days following our first dumping of snow, BIG or SMALL!

In the announcement post for this contest, we offered a little insight by providing a few of Boulder’s “first snow” statistics. More than 120 of you came up with “educated” guesses for the timing and amount of Boulder’s first snow of the 2019-2020 winter season. All of the entries are contained in the calendar below (click to enlarge):

Click to enlarge

A few notes about the predictions:

Dates range from October 1st (really…today?) to November 16th
Amounts range from 0.1 to 42.1 inches
The mean and median date of the guesses were October 24th. This is three days later than climatology.
The most popular days selected were October 18th, 20th, 28th and November 5th, each selected six times.
91% of entries predict a first snow of 4.0 inches or less

BoulderCAST Podcast Episode #25: Examining the Snowfall World Record

SUMMARY OF SCORING:

Those who come closest to the actual date of Boulder’s first MEASURABLE SNOW (defined as snow at or above 0.1″) win! For verification, we’ll go off the official Boulder climate station located at the NIST building in south Boulder. Only the first calendar date of snow will be used (i.e. if the first snow event spans two days, only the amount of the first day will count). In the event that multiple participants select the same date, the tie-breaker of snowfall amount will be used.

SUMMARY OF PRIZES:

The prizes for the contest are as follows:

1st place: 12-month Premium subscription + $25 Amazon Gift Card
2nd place: 6-month Premium subscription
Anyone who guesses within 1 day OR 0.1″ correct: 2-month Premium subscription
All other entries: Virtual “pat on the back”