Is it actually 'stock show weather' or is it just cold in January?
video by John Cline
story by Josh Rhoten
published Jan. 4, 2024
January weather in Denver is often dreary, but the persistent “stock show weather” myth that snow always hits during the event is more about perception than fact, according to Professor and Colorado State Climatologist Russ Schumacher.
“The weather can be – and often is – miserable during the stock show in January, but that is because it takes place during one of the coldest times of the year in Denver,” said Schumacher, who also serves as a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. “And actually, the data shows that the weather during the event is often better than it would be if it was held earlier, in December.”
To look closer at what actually happens in “stock show weather,” Schumacher compared data from Denver-Central Park – the old Stapleton airport site – going back to 1952 for the weeks of Jan. 6-21. He also looked at the 15 days before and the 15 days after that window to get a better sense of patterns around the event, which draws visitors, vendors and participants from around the country to the Mile High City. He said that whether you’re looking at daily high or low temperatures, the average is definitely colder for the two weeks leading up to the stock show than during the stock show itself.
Nearly half of the years Schumacher looked at have had at least one night below zero during the stock show – which is slightly more frequent than the weeks directly before and after. But extreme cold – minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit or colder – is less frequent during the stock show than in the surrounding weeks. The data also shows that the average temperature during the show has actually gone up by over 3 degrees Fahrenheit from 1948-2023.
Schumacher added that the late December window usually sees a lot more snowstorms than the stock show period – including the huge storms of 1982 and 2006.
“That includes the storm that brought 6.8” of snow on Dec. 29 last year,” he said. “There hasn’t been a day with 6 inches of snow in Denver during the stock show window we looked at since 1992. One of the only recent instances that was close brought 4.6 inches snow this year on Jan. 18 – which may lead to some of the recency bias that keeps this idea going.”