The Denver Post

July finishes as warmest month in past two years

- By Chris Bianchi

Denver saw a warm and wet July, continuing the soggy weather that’s been a hallmark so far in 2019.

Denver saw its warmest month in two years this July, although that number isn’t quite as impressive as it may sound initially.

With an average monthly temperatur­e of 75.7 degrees last month, Denver finished 1.5 degrees above average, and slightly warmer than July 2018 (75.3 degrees).

Because July is Denver’s warmest month of the year by nearly 2 degrees, though, July is almost always the hottest month of the year.

In essence, this July was hotter than last July, and only marginally so. That said, Denver has had its coldest start to a calendar year since 1983.

Only January and April have featured above-average temperatur­es so far this year, making July’s relatively warm weather perhaps feel a bit hotter than it might have in other years. On the rainfall front, the official tally of 2.42 inches at Denver Internatio­nal Airport contrasts with Denver’s old Stapleton Airport observatio­n site, which only saw 0.92 inches during the month.

But downtown Denver saw 3.21 inches — an indication of the hitor-miss nature of the thundersto­rms that often account for a large portion of the region’s summertime moisture.

The 2.42-inch official rainfall amount in Denver, though, is a tick above average. So far in 2019, Denver has seen exactly 12 inches of rainfall through the end of July.

That’s already well over what we saw in all of 2018 and just shy of Denver’s full year average precipitat­ion tally of 14.30 inches.

Big, fireworks-disrupting thundersto­rms on the Fourth of July and a deadly flash flood in Lakewood on July 20 highlighte­d the stormy weather across the metro area during the month.

Denver hit 101 degrees on July 19 — the Mile High City’s warmest temperatur­e in more than a year.

How does August look, at least to start? Warm, though there are signs it will turn wet as the monsoon kicks in.

Temperatur­es will start at or slightly above average for the first few days of the month, before a potentiall­y wetter spell next week.

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