How early was our first snow this year compared to normal?

The days are flying by and next thing you know it's going to be 2026 in less than a month! We aren't technically even into "winter" yet and we've already seen a good snowfall in our area. I put "winter" in quotes because that is astronomical winter, the one most of you are familiar with, but we are technically already in meteorological winter which started on December 1st.

We saw a daily record on December 2nd of 4.7" of snow with that last winter storm that rolled through our area! We have already seen almost 5" of snow on the season! Seem a little early for that much snow, or any snow at all? You'd be correct!

When should we be getting measurable snow though? Is it in December? Let's take a quiz and see how you do!

On average, when does Louisville typically get its first 1" of snow?

a.) December 9th

b.) January 3rd

c.) December 26th

d.) November 30th

The answer is... c.) December 26th

We just blew that out of the water on Tuesday morning, so we were ahead of schedule by over 3 weeks!!

While this was an early snow we just got, it definitely isn't the earliest we've seen. We technically got a "trace" of snow back on November 9th, being the first "snowfall" we saw this year. What's the earliest?

Earliest Snowfall: Trace on October 10, 1906. Our earliest sleet was a trace on October 3, 1980. (Note: A trace of frozen precipitation fell October 6, 1952, but it is unknown whether that was sleet, snow, or a mixture of the two. On that day Fort Knox reported only sleet, but Lexington did report snow.) So, even though the airport officially reported a trace of snow this morning, it technically isn't the earliest trace we have seen.

Earliest Measurable Snowfall: 1.4” on October 19, 1989

Since we got over 4" of snow on the 2nd, let's look at some other dates for more snowfall!

Average (since 1885) date of:

First trace: November 15

Last trace: April 3

First measurable: December 6

Last measurable: March 14

First inch: December 26

Last inch: February 22

First 4”: January 21

Last 4”: February 9

Since we saw over 4" already, that means we were way ahead of schedule for that much snow, around 50 days early!!