tacoman25

Looking at the stats, Septembers have definitely been running warm recently. Since 2010, only 2011 and 2020 have been below normal. October has been more of a mixed bag. 2023, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2013, 2012, 2011 were all below normal.

There was no mention of the site change in your initial post about DEN 90+ days "exploding", which is why I pointed it out. No one has said the frequency of hot days hasn't increased here and elsewhere in CO. It's important to make that distinction, because you keep coming back to it as if that was challenged.

I wasn't arguing. Just adding context to the DEN 90+ stats.

1) Both things can be true. Yes, it has gotten hotter in the summer. But you specifically highlighted 90+ days at Denver, which for the reasons I gave have absolutely been influenced to an extent by the location change. It's ok to acknowledge this. 2) Of course. This was not my point, though. 3) Correct. Still in the same general microclimate, though, which is significantly different in some ways from the current DEN. You really can't ignore the difference in siting in relation to distance from the mountains, as I explained.

Inverse to the warming summer effect, the airport location move has had a cooling effect in the winter, especially on mins. I'll do a more detailed post at some point about this.

So let me understand the logic here: the move of about 15 mi primarily east to an entirely new location for the airport records is not important and totally comparable to historical records, but the the new ASOS environment in the same general location as the old airport is not comparable? As someone who lives here, let me explain why you're wrong. In the summer, most late mornings/early afternoons see clouds/storms build up over the mountains and then drift east over the plains. Locations that are further west get the cloud cover sooner, and therefore tend to have a bit less sunshine warming in the afternoon. When the clouds produce cooling rains, that also reaches western areas sooner. This is the primary reason that moving the airport significantly east of its previous location has resulted in a bit higher afternoon temps at DIA, compared to the old Stapleton airport. It's also the main reason why, if you look at Boulder's long term records, the average summer highs are about 2 degrees cooler than Denver's. The Boulder airport is at almost the exact same elevation as Denver, but is located about 15 mi closer to the mountains. Mean temps are one thing, but there's no doubt that the location change has had a small, 1-2 degree (I'm happy to provide the data) warming effect on the airport's highs, which then results in more 90+ days. We have a ton of days here that top out in the 88-92 range, so you can see how the numbers would get bumped. No one said this makes the warming summers since the 1990s an "artifact" of the airport move. In fact, I did say we have warmed and see more 90+ days regardless.

One factor to keep in mind with DEN is that the airport and primary station data for the city moved locations (further north and east of the city) in the mid 1990s. But the old Stapleton airport location has continued keeping records, and what that data shows is that the new location averages about 1-2 degrees warmer for highs most summers compared to the old one. So yeah, we do see more 90+ days than decades ago, but the "explosion" since the 1990s you reference has been also been enhanced by the airport location change.

Exactly. But not everyone follows that when attributing cause and effect.

64/47 day at DEN yesterday, -13 below average day. Still haven't been warmer than 86 since 8/21. We're a day away from the 5 year anniversary of one of the most dynamic weather events I've seen. After hitting a record 101 a few days earlier, a strong cold front pushed down the Front Range on 9/7. First it produced high winds and blowing dust, with temps falling from the low 90s in the early afternoon to the 50s a few hours later. Then came rain, turning to snow in the early am hours. High of 93 on 9/7, followed by 43 on 9/8. DEN officially picked up an inch, but many parts of the metro area (including my house) saw 2-3". It was one of the earliest snows on record for the city.

Of course climate change is having an effect on certain things. Did anyone say it isn't? We can still acknowledge that and also acknowledge that directly attributing disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, etc to climate change is not a scientific endeavor. Now, if research shows that certain events are statistically becoming more common across large regions over a significant period of time that correlates to climate change (and there is a physical reason for it that also corroborates) then you have a starting point. Give nuance a chance. Or don't. I don't have much patience for those that adopt a rigid, religious, dogmatic mindset.

I was largely agreeing with your point. But it's also fair to point out that because singular events cannot singularly be attributed to climate change, telling people that catastrophic floods are now 15% more likely in their area isn't going to move the needle. And of course, the science is still very much unsettled on exactly how climate warming is affecting natural disaster frequency, severity, etc. So it will likely take something much larger scale and non-singular to affect political/social change of mind.

Yeah, the issue is that failed harvests, catastrophic floods, other major disasters, etc, have all happened many times before and it's really impossible (and intellectually dishonest) to pin any single event directly to climate change. Now, if some regions started seeing repeated, mass casualty level heat waves, or as you said rising oceans began causing large scale flooding in major cities, then I think that would grab enough political attention to take serious action.

GFS says relief is coming soon. We shall see.

After last year's 4th hottest summer on record nationally, I'm guessing 2025 ended up somewhere in the 15th to 20th range.

DEN finished the last 10 days of August with no high warmer than 84. The last time that happened was 1987.

Seventh day in a row with rain here yesterday. DEN picked up another .69", now up to 4.10" on the month. Wettest August for the airport since it moved to its current location in the mid 1990s.

What he said actually doesn't make much sense. Moral intelligence vs. reasoning intelligence what?

Another day, another downpour here. .42" in just over an hour earlier this evening. Looks like the airport picked up .50". This has been the best summer rainy stretch here since June 2023 - which was insane (over 6" of rain in like 2 weeks).

This doesn't show amounts but definitely gives an idea of where the heaviest rainfall has been the past week. These maps tend to be biased dry because they often include stations that are missing precip data.

Just picked up .68" from a heavy t-storm that moved through. Up to 1.9" for the month. Loving this pattern!

Man, some of you all are just unlucky. Picked up another half inch so far today. DEN picked up 1.3"! That puts the airport at 2.8" on the month, well above normal. Looks like parts of Aurora have seen 2-2.5" today.

Gotcha. Looked like your area was getting hit good yesterday on radar...glad you picked up some this am!

That's crazy, I'm like 5 mi from you.

Another .31" this afternoon/evening. Up to .72" for the month.

Picked up .08" yesterday evening from showers. Everything is staying west so far today.