As Tilman Gandy waited for a bus Tuesday morning in downtown Denver, he ducked into an office-building entryway trying to elude a frigid wind.
Gandy, wearing just a suit and fedora, was woefully underdressed against the bitter, dangerous cold. He was, however, stealthily prepared.
“I’ll let you in on a little secret,” Gandy said with a sly smile. “I’m wearing long johns.”
A cold-weather record was set Tuesday in Denver, breaking a mark that stood for nearly 100 years.
The high temperature in Denver struggled to reach 16 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The previous lowest high temperature set in the city on Nov. 11 was 19 degrees, back in 1916.
David Garcia worked a seven-hour split shift Tuesday, as he typically does, standing on the 16th Street Mall waving a sign to attract passers-by to a nearby restaurant.
“It’s cold,” Garcia bellowed as he paced.
Garcia and others who work outdoors will have to wait a bit before temperatures rise above freezing.
More snow is likely in Denver on Wednesday, when the high temperature is expected to be 6 degrees, which would break another record.
The lowest high temperature in the city on Nov. 12 also was recorded in 1916, when the thermometer topped out at 9 degrees.
“There’s not going to be a huge break,” said Kari Bowen, a Weather Service meteorologist and spokeswoman.
Wednesday’s wind-chill value in Denver is expected to drop as low as 15 below.
On Tuesday, Antonio Dominguez and his four-man construction crew had the unenviable task of breaking concrete in a downtown alleyway to lay new underground cable pipe.
Dressed in a hoodie, vest, wool cap and sweat pants under his blue jeans, Dominguez declared he was ready for the deep freeze.
“You just have to keep moving,” he said. “You have to keep working. If you stop, you cool down.”
The workers kept the heater running in their pickup truck, where they took quick breaks to warm up. They drank hot coffee and hot chocolate throughout the day.
The workers’ equipment, however, didn’t hold up as well. A jackhammer bit the dust in the freezing cold, while a “missile,” used to bore holes in the ground to clear the way for new pipe, came up lame.
At the Sante Fe Cookie Co. — which is below street level in the Republic Plaza Building, just off the 16th Street Mall at Tremont Place — proprietor Debbie Kuehn invited a visitor to stand in front of a warm, busy oven.
“It’s really nice to stand right here,” Kuehn said, smiling.
A first-time customer stopped into the shop, saying she smelled cookies up on the mall and followed the aroma.
“It smells warm,” Kuehn said. “That makes people feel good.”
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822, knicholson@denverpost.com or .
