FRIDAY UPDATE FROM DENVERPOST.COM
A new heat record was set today at Denver International Airport, with a high temperature of 102 degrees at 2:48 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. This breaks the old record for July 22nd, of 100 degrees set back in 1931. It also makes the fourth consecutive day of temperatures in the triple digits, tying the second-longest stretch of high temperatures Denver history, set in 1990. Tomorrow could also be above 100 degrees, which would tie the all-time record-holding five day stretch of 100-plus degree temperatures, set in 1989.
AT 2:48 PM MDT…THE TEMPERATURE AT DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
REACHED 102 DEGREES. THIS BREAKS THE OLD JULY 22ND RECORD OF 100
DEGREES SET BACK IN 1931.
The last time July 21 came close to being as hot as it was Thursday, Ronald Reagan was still learning his way around the White House and punk rock was burning up the radio dial.
The 104-degree reading at Denver International Airport at midafternoon made toast of the old record, 100 degrees in 1981.
Thursday was the third consecutive day of record heat in Denver and the fourth day this month with temperatures at or above 100, according to the National Weather Service.
The Weather Service is predicting a high of 100 today, which would match the record for July 22, set in 1931.
The heat seared across the state Thursday. Grand Junction set a record with 106, and Pueblo matched its highest mark, also 106. By late afternoon, hospitals and the state health department reported only scattered incidents of dehydration and heat exhaustion.
A check of area coroners and homeless shelters Thursday night turned up no heat-related deaths.
Power usage hit a record peak Thursday at 6,785 megawatts. Parts of Broomfield and Westminster lost electrical service between 5 and 6 p.m., affecting about 25,000 customers. Xcel Energy officials did not have a cause of the outage late Thursday, but they hoped to restore power by midnight.
Some in Denver took the heat head-on.
Shortly after noon, Jamie Van Leeuwen packed his green Jan sport backpack with a cache of Pepsi and various personal hygiene products and headed to Civic Center. Downtown, the temperature read 103 degrees.
“You guys need anything today?” Van Leeuwen called out to a dozen or so young men and women sprawled on the grass. Van Leeuwen works for Urban Peak, a nonprofit that serves at-risk and homeless youth.
In moments, he was surrounded. The sodas went first, then the socks, then items such as deodorant.
“We may be out on the streets, but we don’t want to smell like ’em,” offered James Trammell, 21, who has been homeless off and on since age 8, he says, when he ran away from social services.
New socks are essential in the heat, Trammell said. “If your socks get too bad, you have to throw them away and go commando in your boots.”
He and Nick Richardson, 25, and Jesse Adkins, 20, talked with Van Leeuwen about the challenges of being homeless in the heat.
What do they do to cool off?
“We soak our heads in the fountains on 16th Street, then keep walking,” Trammell said.
“We hang out in bookstores,” said Richardson, who estimates he’s been on the street nearly six years. “If you don’t have a backpack, they won’t run you off.”
“Get cups of water from fast-food stores,” said Adkins.
At Roxborough Park, landscaping crews with C&B Waterworks were consuming gallons of Gatorade.
“We’re doing everything we can to keep hydrated out here, but it’s bad,” company owner Chad Bell said.
Trees and shrubs were taxed by the heat, and the hardiest of grasses were suffering, he said.
“I’ve been in business about 10 years and this is probably the worst that I’ve seen it,” Bell said.
He added, “It’s getting difficult to keep guys from quitting on you in this heat.”
Relief is already overdue.
Monsoon season, a usual provider of pounding afternoon showers, is already a week late, according to weather experts.
Normally, the Front Range sweats through a hot and dry spell beginning mid-June and ending with the arrival of the Southwest’s so-called monsoon rains in early July, said Marty Hoerling, a climate expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder.
During monsoon season, the Rocky Mountains cook in the sun during the day, Hoerling said, absorbing enough heat by midafternoon to create a significant low-pressure system over the region. That can pull in air masses from the south.
If that air, which comes from the Pacific or the Gulf of Mexico, carries enough moisture, huge clouds form over the mountains, delivering both rain and shade.
The air quality could use some relief, for sure.
Since Tuesday, air quality throughout the Front Range has been deteriorating as the high-pressure system parked itself over the state, suppressing thunderstorms and allowing for the accumulation of ozone.
Ozone, the prime ingredient in urban smog, can trigger respiratory problems among the young, elderly and sick.
An air monitor at Rocky Flats near Golden recorded the highest levels of ozone Wednesday at 77 parts per billion, up from 65 ppb on Tuesday. Thursday, the ozone reading at Chatfield State Park hit 81 ppb.
The Regional Air Quality Council has issued 16 alerts so far this year, warning those sensitive groups to limit their outside activity. Last year, 14 alerts went out for the summer season.
Despite the ozone rise, levels have not violated federal standards. Air quality experts suspect the region might violate the standard in coming weeks, but they stopped short of a firm prediction.
“Because of the weather in Colorado, you never know,” said Gerald Dilley, an engineer with the Regional Air Quality Council.
The weather has made lawns and people grow thirsty.
Denver Water’s 1.2 million customers soaked up 425 million gallons Tuesday, the most in one day so far this year.
Wednesday’s use slipped only slightly, to 420 million gallons. Thursday’s figures were not available.
Still, customers did not return to their old ways of the days before the most recent drought raised awareness of wise water use. Before the drought, consumption would have topped 500 million gallons, said Denver Water spokeswoman Trina McGuire-Collier.
“It’s great that that even with the intense heat, most people are still using water wisely,” she said.
The record for single-day consumption is 553 million gallons, set July 6, 1989.
Ernestine Ransom, 79, sat outside Sunset Park, a senior assisted-living community at 18th and Larimer streets downtown.
She wasn’t sweating the heat.
“I’m from Amarillo, Texas. This is nothing,” she explained. “You got to go to Texas if you want to feel some heat.”
Staff writers Amy Herdy, Kim McGuire, Annette Espinoza, Christopher Ortiz and Manny Gonzales contributed to this report.
Staff writer Joey Bunch can be reached at 303-820-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.
