Friday, September 25, 2026

A Dust Bowl front paints Denver brown, then hands the city its heaviest September snow

1936 · Denver

On the evening of Sept. 25, 1936, a cold front slammed Denver with gale-force north winds and a deadly dust storm. The high had been 84. By midnight it was 38. Rain started at 10:55 p.m., flipped to snow before dawn, and the weekend that followed still holds the city's September snowfall record.

At 6 p.m. the official observer still had 82 degrees and a 4 mph breeze. The wind shifted north, the barometer jumped, and by 7 p.m. Denver was holding a sustained 36 mph with gusts to 38. The dust had been scooped off southern Wyoming and northern Colorado. Visibility fell to about a quarter-mile in the open and less than that when the stuff funneled down alleys. Planes stayed on the ground. Traffic stopped. Houses filled. Power and telephone lines came down. The city went dark for a few hours; some suburbs sat in the dark for 18. About 2,500 phones went dead. An electric lineman was killed repairing the wind damage.

Rain began at 10:55 p.m. and turned to snow in the early hours of the 26th. What followed, Sept. 26-28, is still the heaviest September snow Denver has on the books and the heaviest this early in a season: 16.5 inches downtown, 21.3 at the municipal airport, and 15.0 inches in the 24 hours from 6 p.m. on the 27th to 6 p.m. on the 28th. Branches and poles went down. More than 3,000 workers were called to clear the city. Off-duty firefighters were ordered in. Property damage was estimated at $7 million in 1936 money. School attendance dropped by half. Then it warmed up and most of the snow left before October arrived, which is the state's idea of an apology.

The Monthly Weather Review that year also noted the same day's dust in northeastern Colorado cut visibility to 300 yards, and by 9 p.m. the storm had reached Pueblo. The date is the prologue. The snow is the chapter people still quote.

Sources: NWS notes via ThorntonWeather · NWS Boulder public information statement · KDVR — Denver's biggest September snowstorm · Monthly Weather Review, Dec. 1936

Chauncey Billups is born in Denver, then spends a career arriving late on purpose

1976 · Park Hill and George Washington High School, Denver

Chauncey Ray Billups was born in Denver on Sept. 25, 1976, grew up in Park Hill, and left George Washington High School as the only three-time Mr. Colorado Basketball. Two years at Colorado, a No. 3 draft pick, a 2004 Finals MVP in Detroit, and a 2024 Hall of Fame bust later, the kid they called Smooth is still the state's most finished argument for staying with a late clock.

Ray and Faye Billups raised three children in Park Hill. By fifth grade the neighborhood had already tried out a nickname, the King of Park Hill, which is a lot of title for a kid who still had to get through Monaco Parkway. At George Washington he started as a freshman, made first-team all-state all four years, won Colorado Player of the Year twice, and took Mr. Basketball three times — still the only player to do that. The Patriots won state. The McDonald's All-American game wanted him; a shoulder kept him off the floor. The gym on South Monaco now has his name on the court.

He chose Colorado over Kansas and Georgia Tech, averaged 18-plus as a Buff, and dragged the program back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1968. Boston took him third in 1997. Then the league did what the league does to young point guards: Celtics, Raptors, a first stop in Denver, Minnesota. Detroit is where the nickname stuck. Mr. Big Shot averaged 21 and 5 in the 2004 Finals, beat the Lakers, and walked off with the MVP. Five All-Star games. A gold medal in 2010. Jersey No. 1 in the Palace rafters. No. 4 in Boulder. The Naismith Hall of Fame took him in 2024.

He came home in the middle, too — traded to the Nuggets in 2008 for Allen Iverson — and the city got to watch the late-clock version in the building that had been wishing for him since high school. The shot always looked calm. That is the Park Hill part. The rest is just the clock agreeing.

Sources: Colorado Encyclopedia — Chauncey Billups · Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame · Wikipedia — Chauncey Billups · Denver Gazette — Billups career timeline

The date keeps a 91-degree afternoon and a 25-degree morning in the same drawer

1998 · Denver

Sept. 25's average high is about 75. The record high is 91, set in 1998. The record low is 25, from 1926. In 1908 the first snow of the season started on this date and left 6.5 inches downtown by morning. In 1970 the official stick caught 1.5 inches, the most the date itself has ever kept.

The calendar is selling a 75-degree high and a mid-40s low, which is the version of late September that lets you leave a jacket in the car and pretend you meant to. The sheet does not cooperate.

Hottest official afternoon on the date: 91 in 1998. Next door are 88 in 2014 and a pair of 87s in 2020 and 2021. Coldest morning: 25 in 1926, with 29 in 1942 and 30 in 1934 still in the conversation. The lowest high is 45, shared by 1934 and 1970. The wettest days managed 0.54 inch in 1927 and again in 2012. Official snow on the 25th itself tops out at 1.5 inches in 1970, when the high only made it to 45.

The sneakier first snow is 1908. Post-frontal rain on the 25th turned overnight and totaled 6.5 inches in downtown Denver by the 26th, with 0.76 inch of water and north winds held at 39 mph on the 25th. That was the first snow of the season. In 1996 another early storm loaded the foothills while the old Stapleton site took 4.7 inches; DIA caught a 38 mph north gust after the front. In 1910 a thunderstorm held north winds at 51 mph, then the city's September record. In 1999 Wondervu in the Boulder foothills gusted to 90.

Wear the layer. The date has already done heat, freeze, first snow, and a dusty prologue to a record storm without changing its name.

Sources: Extreme Weather Watch — Denver Sept. 25 · NWS notes via ThorntonWeather · NWS Boulder public information statement