COLORADO, USA — The official weather station for Denver (Denver International Airport), finished this September with the second warmest temperature in the 147-year history (at 3 different Denver locations) of record-keeping in the Mile High City.
An average temperature of 69.3 degrees for the month, was just a tenth of a degree away from tying the record.
The weather station in Stapleton, which used to be the official sensor before 1994, hit an average of 69.2 degrees for the month. That breaks the all-time record there of 68.3 degrees from 2015. The average temperature at Stapleton was more than a degree cooler than DIA in 2015.
A few other stations in the state also broke all-time September heat records:
Location 2019 Average Old Record
Centennial 69.8 68.0 (2015)
Limon 65.7 65.0 (1963)
Greeley 66.9 66.5 (2015,2013)
Colorado Springs 68.7 67.3 (2015)
Pueblo 72.8 72.0 (2015)
Aspen 59.4 58.9 (2018)
La Junta 75.7 73.8 ( 2015)
Lamar 74.6 72.7 (2015)
Trinidad 72.2 70.4 (2015)
Springfield 72.6 71.1 (2015)
It should be noted that Greeley only has 10 years of climate data at their station. Aspen and Centennial only have 22 years of data.
Alamosa also missed an all-time record by just a tenth of a degree, finishing the month with a 58.6-degree average. John Martin Reservoir, which broke a state record for the hottest temperature ever recorded in a single day back on July 19, tied an all-time September record with an average temperature of 74.2 degrees.
There were no weather stations in the state that recorded below-average temperatures for September. The closest to average was on the Western Slope in Grand Junction and Durango.
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A single month of warm temperatures doesn't mean much by itself. It's only when it gets applied to climate data that it takes on real meaning. Weather data needs to be compiled into large data sets to be considered climate.
Denver has 147 years of temperature data. That data spans three different weather stations. Downtown Denver from 1874 to 1949. Denver Stapleton Airport from 1950 to 1994. And Denver International Airport since 1995.
The average September temperature in the first decade of the 20th Century was 62.6 degrees. That’s a full 4 degrees colder than this decade. A little cool down in from the 1940’s through the 70’s, but then from 62.8 degrees in the 1980's up to 66.6 degrees through the 2010's.
A four degree increase doesn’t seem like much, but it is enough to alter our climate.
Take the observation of our assistant state climatologist in her comparison of Colorado Springs history. Becky Bolinger said "It’s becoming more apparent that September is not the start of fall but the extension of summer."
That is how you make a meaningful climate statement, by compiling interesting weather data.
