Denver’s weather in May 2023 was wet, very wet. But did it break a record?

According to a report furnished by the Denver Museum of Nature & Science for the National Weather Service, May 2023 was the fourth wettest May on record for the Mile High City.

The city’s official weather station at Denver International Airport recorded 5.53 inches of rainfall for the month. To compare, Denver’s average rainfall for May is 2.16 inches, which is 3.37 inches below May 2023’s total.

But that’s not the whole story.

A dry first week of the month quickly ramped up with rain as severe thunderstorms on Tuesday, May 9, brought damaging hail to eastern Boulder County and parts of Morgan and Weld counties — with golf ball to tennis ball sized stones falling.

On Wednesday, May 10, Denver and places southeast of the city in Arapahoe, Morgan and Washington counties received a round of damaging hail — some stones baseball to softball size — plus a tornado struck a home in Brush.

Around the Mother’s Day weekend (May 11-12), heavy rain and flooding occurred when record rainfall fell on large parts of northeast Colorado.

• A 24-hour daily record of 2.92 inches of rain occurred on May 11
• A 2-day total of 3.75 inches fell between May 11-12
• A 3-day total of 4.40 inches fell between May 10-12 in Denver

The prolonged period of rainfall resulted in flooding, flash flooding and washed out roads in Denver and surrounding areas, including Cherry Creek State Park and the National Wildlife Refuge at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, according to the report.

The slow moving storm system produced a three-day rainfall total of 4-7 inches across the urban corridor and northeast plains, with 1 to 2 feet of heavy wet snowfall in the Front Range Mountains above 10,000 feet in elevation.

What if all that rain had been snow?

Using a snowfall ratio of 10:1, eastern parts of Denver would have been buried under 40 inches of snow, and locations in Arapahoe, Douglas and Elbert counties could have experienced between 48-72 inches or 4-6 feet of snow.

In contrast to all the rainfall, May 2023 was actually warmer compared to average. May’s average temperature was 59.4 degrees, which is 2.0 degrees above the normal of 57.4 degrees. However, the month did not experience a high temperature above 90, with Monday, May 29 reaching 82 degrees.

Here are the top 10 wettest, driest, and highest snow totals in May since records started being kept in 1872.

• Ten wettest May totals in Denver in inches:

• 8.57 – 1876
• 7.31 – 1857
• 6.12 – 1969
• 5.53 – 2023
• 5.06 – 1973
• 4.95 – 1935
• 4.88 – 1938, 1898
• 4.79 – 2011
• 4.77 – 1967

• Ten driest May totals in Denver in inches:

• 0.06 – 1974
• 0.09 – 1886
• 0.15 – 1899
• 0.34 – 1977, 1966
• 0.43 – 1925
• 0.49 – 1972
• 0.52 – 1911
• 0.53 – 1900

• Ten highest snow totals in May for Denver in inches

• 15.5 – 1898
• 13.7 – 1950
• 13.5 – 1978
• 13.2 – 1912
• 12.0 – 1917
• 10.0 – 1908
• 9.0 – 1907
• 8.9 – 1893
• 8.8 – 1957
• 8.3 – 1944