Ah, Denver. A city where you can ski in the morning, golf in the afternoon, and get walloped by a snowstorm overnight. A city where we laugh in the face of a mere six inches of powder but panic when the local King Soopers runs out of milk. 

And while Denverites love to brag about how quickly the snow melts (yes, we know, “300 days of sunshine!”), sometimes Mother Nature decides to test just how tough we really are.

Since 2000, Denver has been hit with some truly epic snowstorms — the kind that shut down highways, ground flights at DIA, and turn unplowed side streets into a lawless wasteland of abandoned Subarus. 

In this countdown, we’re revisiting the top five storms that turned the Mile High City into the Mile Deep in Snow City.

So grab a hot toddy, find your snow shovel, and let’s count down the biggest, baddest, and most unforgettable Denver snowstorms of the 21st century.

#5: The Christmas Eve Snowstorm (December 24, 2007)

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the Front Range, not a creature was stirring — because they were stuck on I-25 in a whiteout. This wasn’t the biggest storm Denver had ever seen, but with 8.5 inches of heavy snow dropping just as people were trying to get home for the holidays, it was a classic case of terrible timing.

Air travelers hoping to make it to grandma’s house by Christmas morning found themselves stranded at DIA, eating airport pretzels and contemplating their life choices. Meanwhile, the roads turned into a festive demolition derby as unprepared drivers slid through intersections like confused reindeer.

The storm didn’t last long, but it packed a punch, snarling holiday traffic and making last-minute shopping an extreme sport. And if you were dreaming of a white Christmas? Well, Santa definitely delivered — though he probably had to swap out the sleigh for a snowplow.

#4: The “Bomb Cyclone” Blizzard (March 13, 2019)

You know a storm means business when meteorologists start throwing around terms like bomb cyclone. It sounds like something out of an action movie — “This summer, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson stars in… The Bomb Cyclone!” — but in reality, it was just Mother Nature reminding Colorado who’s boss.

On March 13, 2019, Denver found itself in the crosshairs of a weather system so intense that it set a record-low barometric pressure reading for the state. Translation? This storm wasn’t just dropping snow — it was bringing hurricane-force winds, thunder and lightning, and the kind of chaos usually reserved for doomsday preppers.

Snow totals weren’t massive in Denver itself (only about 7.1 inches downtown), but that didn’t matter. The ferocious winds — gusting up to 96 mph in some areas — turned the city into an apocalyptic scene. Whiteout conditions shut down every major highway, stranded hundreds of drivers, and left first responders scrambling to perform snow rescues.

DIA? Completely out of commission with over 1,300 flights canceled. If you were supposed to be traveling that day, well… hope you enjoyed your unexpected stay in the airport terminal.

And let’s not forget the poor folks who lost power during this mess. Nothing like sitting in a freezing house, wrapped in every blanket you own, hoping the Wi-Fi holds out long enough to Google how long can a human survive without heat?

By the time the storm finally moved on, it had left a path of destruction across the Front Range. Trees down, semis tipped over, and drifts so high you could lose a golden retriever in them. It was a blizzard, a windstorm, and a full-blown meteorological flex all rolled into one.

#3: The Pre-Christmas Blizzard (December 20–21, 2006)

Nothing spreads holiday cheer quite like a 20.7-inch dumping of snow just days before Christmas. This wasn’t just a winter wonderland — it was a full-blown snowpocalypse that brought Denver to a screeching halt at the worst possible time.

Trying to get home for the holidays? Good luck. DIA shut down completely. Highways? Closed. Side streets? Unplowed disasters. Parking lots? Permanent car storage facilities until further notice.

This storm hit hard and fast, dropping more than a foot of snow in just 24 hours and bringing whiteout conditions that made stepping outside feel like walking into a violently shaken snow globe. 

Digging out took days, with stranded vehicles littering the roads and plows struggling to keep up. But hey, on the bright side, anyone dreaming of a white Christmas definitely got their wish.

#2: The Mid-March Blizzard (March 13–14, 2021)

March in Denver is a tricky beast. One day, you’re in a t-shirt sipping a patio beer, and the next, you’re wondering if you should just build an igloo and wait for spring. Enter the Mid-March Blizzard of 2021, a storm that dumped a whopping 27.1 inches of snow on Denver — making it the city’s fourth-largest snowstorm on record.

This one had everything: relentless snowfall, buried cars, impassable streets, and a citywide realization that we probably should have bought a better snow blower. DIA, once again, became a frozen purgatory as over 2,000 flights were canceled.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people lost power, meaning no heat, no Netflix, and no ability to ask Alexa how to survive a blizzard. Grocery stores were picked clean in the days leading up to the storm, leaving latecomers to fight over the last sad bag of baby carrots. 

When the snow finally stopped, we emerged from our homes like winter warriors, surveying the damage and wondering if digging out was really worth it. (Spoiler: It wasn’t. Work-from-home meant we were still expected to show up on Zoom, snowstorm or not.)

Only one storm tops this — Denver’s biggest, baddest, and snowiest beast of the 21st century. Ready? Let’s go.

#1: The St. Patrick’s Day Blizzard (March 17–19, 2003)

Denver has seen its fair share of wild snowstorms, but nothing this century compares to the absolute behemoth that was the St. Patrick’s Day Blizzard of 2003. Over three relentless days, the city got buried under a staggering 31.8 inches of snow — the second-biggest snowfall in Denver’s recorded history.

Forget shoveling your driveway; entire neighborhoods disappeared under snowdrifts taller than most cars. Streets became impassable, the city all but shut down, and DIA was completely closed for nearly two days. If you weren’t already where you needed to be, you weren’t going anywhere.

The weight of the snow was so intense that roofs collapsed, trees snapped like twigs, and thousands of people lost power. Ski resorts, normally the big winners in a storm like this, had to close because even they couldn’t handle the sheer volume of snow coming down.

By the time it was over, the city was left with a cleanup effort that took over a week and a winter war story that Denverites still talk about to this day. You don’t just forget a blizzard like this — it becomes legend.

So, there you have it — Denver’s top five snowstorms since 2000. Some brought chaos, some brought holiday headaches, and some just laughed in the face of our so-called “300 days of sunshine.” But if there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that in Denver, there’s always another snowstorm just waiting to make history.