Denver is heating up
Mile High City recording triple-digit temperatures at an increasing rate
If Denver feels hotter than you ever remember, it’s not your imagination. ¶ The Mile High City tied an all-time heat record in June and hovered around 100 degrees, topping out at 98, on Thursday, according to National Weather Service forecasters.
Had temperatures reached 100 on Thursday, it would have marked the third time this year that we sweltered in triple-digit heat. By comparison, temperatures reached 100 only twice between 1910 and 1920, NWS meteorologist Bernie Meier said. Other sweaty facts:
• Denver had more 100-degree days in the past nine years than in the first 78 years of recorded temperatures in the city.
• The lucky people who lived in Denver during the first 127 years of the city’s recorded weather history, from 1872 to 1999, saw only 47 days where the temperature climbed to 100 degrees or above. That’s happened 44 times in just the last 19 years.
• Denver has reached a record high of 105 degrees four times — all since 2005 — including on June 28.
“I think the story of the year so far is that we tied an all-time temperature record of 105 degrees in June,” said NWS chief meteorologist Nazette Rydell.
On Thursday, Denver surpassed 90 degrees for the 35th day this year, a pace
slightly ahead of the hottest year in the city’s recorded history in 2012.
In some good news, Rydell predicted that we won’t surpass 2012, the hottest year in Colorado history. She nonetheless suspects this year will be one for the record books.
Traditionally, July 20 is the hottest day of the year in Denver, with five 100-degree days in the city’s history.
In the foreseeable future, Coloradans can expect to see incremental temperature increases that can contribute to seasonal changes, including shorter winters, earlier springs and more severe weather, Rydell said.
Already this year, eight daily high-temperature records have fallen or been tied, according to NWS data. Record highs were set April 12 (79 degrees), April 29 (83), May 10 (90), May 25 (91), June 5 (95), June 6 (95), June 9 (95) and June 28 (105).
By comparison, the only record low set in Denver this year was Feb. 21, when the temperature plummet- ed to minus-7 degrees, according to NWS data.
Denver isn’t the only location undergoing a heat wave. Much of the world had one of the warmest Junes in history, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.