Drizzles of relief fell from dishwater skies for much of the day Thursday, sweeping away a string of 90-degree-plus days and delivering the metro area a taste of fall amid a punishing summer.
Some areas skipped over fall and went straight to winter. The Colorado Department of Transportation closed Mount Evans Highway on Thursday because of snow.
Yes, snow.
“It was kind of a surprise,” said CDOT spokeswoman Stacey Stegman.
In other places, the change was less jarring but equally abrupt. In Denver, the high temperature Thursday was 61, 30 degrees lower than Wednesday. It ended a string of seven 90-degree-plus days that stretched into last month.
Most parts of the metro area picked up at least an inch of rain overnight, according to volunteers’ reports from the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network at Colorado State University.
Some areas in south Denver received 2 inches, according to the reports.
About four-tenths of an inch fell Thursday at Denver International Airport, said Frank Benton of the National Weather Service.
Play at the The International golf tournament near Castle Rock was canceled Thursday.
And the rain also created a pothole headache in a stretch of Hampden Avenue near South Santa Fe Drive that was being paved, Stegman said.
Benton said folks shouldn’t expect cool weather to stick around too long.
The forecast dries out and warms up as the region heads into the weekend.
“This is a little system that we had come through that’s kind of strange, but we’ll rebound and be in the upper 80s in the next few days,” Benton said.
And beyond that, Benton said, more searing weather isn’t out of the question.
“The record (high temperatures for August) are all in the upper 90s and 100s all through the month,” he said. “So you can’t rule out upper 90s.”
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
