The Mile High City has enjoyed some great weather this past week and one weather record has officially been set. Just before midnight last night, the temperature at Denver International Airport dropped to 45 degrees. This sets a new record high minimum for November 12th, breaking the old record of 44 degrees set in 1894. Thornton however wasn’t near as warm as we had a low temperature of 40.5 degrees.
The warm weather pattern though is set for a big change this weekend as you can see in our forecast. Two systems will begin to impact the area, the second of which arrives Saturday afternoon and could bring a good deal of snow to the area. Get the details on the Winter Storm Watch here.
It is important to remember though that the National Weather Service moved Denver’s official measurements to DIA 14 years ago from the former Stapleton site. This has caused a major change in Denver’s climate and weather records. Data shows that DIA runs hotter on the highs, colder on the colds and records less moisture than what stations closer to Denver do. This has resulted in Denver’s historical climate records being skewed.
Some say Denver’s climate records have forever been altered due to the station move and as such any weather record should have an asterisk attached to it. For more on the controversy, be sure to read our Examiner.com investigative series:
Examiner.com Investigates
Do Denver weather and climate records have an asterisk attached?
Part 1 – Overview and history.
Part 2 – Data analysis. Is there a problem?
Part 3 – Solutions, conclusions and why you should care.
November 12, 2009 – Denver gets new National Weather Service monitoring station