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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
“(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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Denver was on a heat alert Monday and another one Tuesday for more temperatures over 95 degrees.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n