As a dozen or so ice skaters circled in the outdoor rink in Denver’s Skyline Park on Monday, gloves and winter hats were the exception, not the rule.
Under mostly cloudy skies, Denver’s high temperature crept into the lower 60s on Monday — short of the 72-degree record for the date, set in 1921, but plenty warm enough to take some visitors by surprise.
“This is how the weather’s supposed to be in Southern California right now,” said Golden State resident Matt Kamada, 25, as he laced on a pair of hockey skates.
Kamada, who is visiting Denver with his fiancee, Ali Kambara, said the couple were “expecting it to be snowing.”
Though prepared for cold conditions, they were able to leave their winter coats at the hotel.
The normal high temperature for the day in Denver is 44 degrees. On Monday, that was just two degrees above the actual morning low.
While winter weather has a firm grip on the northern and central Colorado mountains, Denver and the Front Range remain mild and dry, a pattern unlikely to change in a hurry.
Several Colorado ski resorts are boasting of early-season bases already measuring 40 inches and deeper, but Denver has seen just a “trace” amount of precipitation for the month of December so far.
Early winterlike weather so far this season has been tracking mostly north of Colorado, streaming across the upper Midwest, which was pounded the past several days, including a storm that collapsed the roof of the Metrodome stadium in Minneapolis.
“This pattern doesn’t change too much over the next 10 days,” said Bernie Meier, a meteorologist and spokesman with the National Weather Service in Boulder.
Denver and the Front Range may get “a little light precipitation here and there, but nothing significant.”
A strong low-pressure system parked southeast of Denver would help pull cold weather and moisture south into the Colorado plains, but that’s not happening, Meier said.
“We haven’t had any strong systems that have dug that far south,” he said.
Denver has certainly seen some warm, dry Decembers.
In 1881, the city recorded “no precipitation” for the entire month, and in 1905, Denver had just a trace, Meier said.
On average, Denver sees about 8.7 inches of snow in December.
“We are dry, but it only takes one storm to put things close to normal,” Meier said.
Today’s weather in Denver is expected to be more of the same, partly sunny, with a high near 65 degrees, according to the weather service.
Wednesday should be a little more seasonal in the city, with a high near 50 and a slight chance — 20 percent — of rain showers.
On Monday afternoon, Capitol Hill resident Ken Kirkpatrick, 58, was among the skaters at Skyline. He rode his bicycle downtown to get in some ice time.
“It’s almost too warm to skate,” Kirkpatrick said. “But it was great to get to bike down here.”
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
