I often get asked if Colorado is really cold in the winter. That is the general perception and people want to make sure their belief is true. And as every Coloradan knows no matter what the question is when it comes to weather in Colorado the answer is always “it depends”.
Yes, everywhere in Colorado there are going to be some very cold days where it is -15 out. However, general weather patterns vary tremendously across the state. I cannot talk in detail about the entire state because I honestly do not know how harsh their winters are because I do not live there. So I am going to focus on Colorado Springs.
Compared to what most people who are not from here believe, Colorado Springs has extremely mild winters. Yes, we average 40+ inches of snow a year; however, it melts. Well for the most part it does. When you hear stories about how we had a blizzard in the morning and it was all gone that afternoon that is not an exaggeration. It is actually common especially in the later winter months to have a lot of snow in the morning and the temperature will be 60 in the afternoon. However, there is one big exception to snow melting and that is snow does not melt on the north side of building and fences. I will have 6-12 inches of snow in my yard about 4 feet wide on the north side of my house and fence from November until April. There will not be any snow on the rest of my yard and it could very well be 50 degrees out.
Colorado Springs has very fast and very massive temperatures shifts. Even during the summer there is a minimum of a 30 degree change in temperature between night and day. In the winter that change can be even greater. So yes it drops below freezing pretty much every night, but during the day 40s are the average and 50s are common.
No Colorado Springs does not have a fall. Our first snow is usually in mid October but late September is not unheard of. In fact 2 weeks ago several inches of snow fell on top of Pikes Peak and it has continued to snow up there on a semi-frequent basis since. Raking your leaves is usually a race to make sure it is done before the next time it snows.
But no Colorado Springs is not Minnesota where the snow sticks around from December until March. Yes it can snow in Colorado Springs 8 months out of the year. But in between those snow storms it will be surprisingly mild and it will always be sunny.