The last time it was this hot for this long in Denver, miners in Telluride rioted, corn prices shot through the roof and the General Assembly had just voted to carve Adams County and the county of Denver from massive Arapahoe County.
Today, Denver is expected to tie a 107-year-old record for consecutive days with a high temperature of 90 degrees or higher.
Barring a well-placed meteor strike producing ash and dust to block the sun, on Thursday the record, set in 1874 and tied in 1901, will be reset to 19 — and counting.
“We’ll be well into the 20s before we get anything better,” National Weather Service meteorologist Bob Koopmeiners said.
Today’s forecast calls for 97 degrees, followed by 98 on Thursday, 100 on Friday, 99 on Saturday, and 96 on Sunday and Monday.
Temperatures could “cool” to 92 on Tuesday, Koopmeiners said.
But no one, except for weather enthusiasts, seems pleased with the record heat.
“I wish the Rockies would win 18 straight (instead),” said Sherri Davis of Centennial. “I’d take 18 days of snow first.”
G.J. Walther of Grand Junction, who was shopping downtown Tuesday, called Front Range residents “wimps” for wilting in the heat.
“See, your problem is you got all those Democrats headed to Denver” for next month’s Democratic National Convention, quipped the staunch Republican. “They’re driving all that hot air this way.”
Besides being hot, it’s dry. The city could make a run at that record, as well.
So far, the metro area has received only 3.28 inches of precipitation. The driest year on record is 2002. At this time that year, the city had 5.34 inches, en route to a total of 7.48 inches.
Average moisture through July 28 is 10.04 inches. The annual average for metro Denver is 15.81 inches.
July has yielded 0.24 of an inch of moisture, 1.71 inches below average.
Also, July has had 24 days that hit at least 90 degrees in the metro area. The summer has reached 90 or above on 35 days. Metro Denver had a total of 54 days that hot from May to September last year.
The record for the hottest summer in metro Denver came in 2000, when there were 61 days of at least 90-degree weather.
So far, the average high for this July is 93.5 degrees, according to the National Weather Service office in Boulder.
Metro Denver reached 100 degrees only once this month, on July 20, although the area flirted within a couple of degrees of the psychological mark seven times, according to the Weather Service.
