It still hasn’t hit 90 degrees yet this spring in Denver, and that will make it a later-than-average first 90-degree date. In both a recent and long-term trend, that is an unusual statistic.
First things first: For just the second time in the last 20 years, Denver will have a later-than-average first 90-degree day. In Denver’s official 147-year history, the average first 90-degree date falls on June 10.
Consider this: It had already hit 90 or above 12 times by this point a year ago. Denver International Airport’s warmest temperature so far this year is 86 degrees (and 85 at the old Stapleton Airport observation site, and 89 in downtown Denver).
It’s not just Denver, either. Through Tuesday, Boulder, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins also hadn’t hit the 90-degree mark so far this year. Only Pueblo and Greeley have hit 90 among the Front Range’s larger population centers, and Pueblo tends to run a few degrees warmer than the rest of the Front Range.
Sure, 50-year-old weather records fall on a semi-regular basis. But what’s even more unusual about this is that Denver’s climate has trended drier and warmer in the last 20 to 30 years. In particular, summers have leaned a few degrees warmer, especially since 2000. Denver’s long-term average first 90-degree date is on June 10, but since 2000, that average date is actually May 31.
RELATED: Last month was Denver’s coldest May in 24 years
But a persistently cool pattern featuring a trough of low pressure anchored in the western United States continues to leave Colorado on the wetter and cooler side of things. In a collective short-, medium- and long-term way, that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. From a significant late-May snowfall to other temperature and precipitation trends, it’s made 2019 a meteorological anomaly along the Front Range.
Here’s the other thing: It’s highly unlikely to hit 90 anytime soon, either. The forecast keeps things relatively cool into next week. And while it remains improbable that we’d go into July without a 90-degree day, it’s worth noting the last time that Denver hadn’t hit 90 through June, Richard Nixon was president (1972).
In the meantime, that means it’s unlikely that we’ll hit 90 degrees in Denver in the near term, and that’s already pretty darn unusual.
