Denver broke a 98-year-old record today when the mercury reached 97 degrees at 2:57 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.
The heat wasn’t done, however, reaching 99 degrees at 4:10 p.m., to shatter the old record of 96 degrees for the date set 1913.
It was the latest date in Denver history that the temperature has hit 99 degrees.
Today is the third straight day to make the record books.
Wednesday’s high of 98 broke the city’s record high for Aug. 24, which had been 97 and was also set in 1936.
Tuesday Denver tied a 2-year-old record high for the date with 98 degrees at the city’s official monitoring site at Denver International Airport.
The normal temperatures this week, based on a 30-year average, would have 86 degrees each day.
Friday?
“It’s iffy at this point,” said Byron Lewis, program manager for the National Weather Service office in Boulder.
The forecast calls for 94 degrees. Denver’s hottest Aug. 26 on record was 1985, when it reached 97 degrees. Wednesday, however, had a forecast for 90 degrees, but soared 8 degrees above it for set a record.
The city also tied a 25-year-old record high for Aug. 18, reaching 98 degrees last Thursday.
Lewis said the extension of Denver’s long, hot summer has been the product a strong ridge of high pressure that has lingered over the region.
“We should start seeing a cooling this weekend to more seasonable temperatures,” he said.
The high Saturday in Denver is expected to be 92 degrees, before temperatures cool in the upper 80s for the next few days, according to the forecast.
Today marks the 16th day this month with temperatures above 90 degrees. Normally Denver has nine such days in August, and last year there were 12, according to the weather data.
In July, there were 20 days of temperatures above 90, which is five more than normal, weather records show.
