Weather in Denver in May

Prime time. If you get to pick your dates, May is the one. Highs average 23.7 °C, lows 7.5 °C, and rain falls on 11 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

May ranks 3 of 12 in Denver. Only October scores clearly higher, and the difference is small enough to be settled by price rather than weather.

Rain on 11 days, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Nothing specialised needed — this is the month you pack for the trip rather than for the weather.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 4 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break; the day swings 16.1 °C from low to high, which means one bag has to cover both. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest May day reached 36.2 °C and the coldest night fell to -4.9 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 30 mm — roughly 52% of the month's rain in one day.

May is moderately variable: 24 mm in the driest year against 148 mm in the wettest, around an average of 58 mm. Roughly two Mays in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 9 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 49%.

How May sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 5.4 °C warmer than April, and June adds another 7.5 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in May

14.3 hours of daylight, gaining 0.9 hours across the month. That is between Denver's extremes of 15 and 9.4 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 37 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage. At 1609 m, altitude is doing as much work here as latitude: thinner air means fierce sun by day and heat that leaves the moment it sets. Within May itself the daily swing is 16.1 °C, so mornings and afternoons need different clothes.

How busy it gets

Busy. Popular without being frantic; book the things you care about, improvise the rest.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

May in Denver versus nearby

If Denver is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Aspen is the weaker option in May — 8.1 °C cooler, 2 days less rain. Moab is a better bet in May — 2.7 °C warmer, 5 days less rain.

So: May works, with October the better month by 8 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Denver

See all twelve months in Denver, or where else to go in May.