Denver has not had a 100-degree day yet this year

Denver hasn’t had a 100-degree day this year yet, and odds are this might be the first time in eight years the city doesn’t have one.

With the unusually rainy start to summer this year, Denver’s temperatures stayed cool longer, so the city’s average temperatures in June and July, when the most 100-degree days happen, were only 75 degrees and 89 degrees, respectively.

So far in August, the average temperature has been 88 degrees. By this time last year, Denver already had five days of 100-degree temperatures.

“We’ve had at least a few 100-degree days over the last few years,” said Zach Hiris with the National Weather Service in Boulder. “2020 had quite a few, but we haven’t hit it yet this year, and to be quite honest, it’s difficult to say if we will.”

More hot weather is on the way in the coming few weeks, but how likely is it that Denver could see a 100-degree day now?

“(Monday) was probably our best chance of getting one,” Hiris said. “We’ve only had two 100-degree days occur after Aug. 21, so if we don’t see something in the next week or two I think we’re in the clear.”

That’s not to say it’s not been hot, Hiris acknowledged, saying that even though it hasn’t hit 100 degrees yet, temperatures have been right below 100 several times already. Monday hit a daily record with 99 degrees, and highs have been in the 90s for a week, with more on the way.

Denver was on a heat alert Monday and another one Tuesday for more temperatures over 95 degrees.

The last time Denver missed the 100-degree threshold was in 2015, and the year with the greatest number of 100-degree days was 2012 when the city saw triple digits on 13 days.

Denver has seen two recent days of 100-degree weather in early September — one in 2019 and one in 2020 — so it is technically possible there could be one this year as well.

“With Colorado, it’s difficult to say when we reach a certain date it’s not happening,” Hiris said. “We’ve started seeing 100-degree days into September now, so if we got another heat wave that shifted a little more to the west, then it’d be possible that we could see 100 degrees again. But, at least, from what we’re seeing in the long-term pattern, it doesn’t look like it’s especially likely to see that well above-normal heat.”

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