{"id":24400,"date":"2024-08-14T08:00:16","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T14:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/?p=24400"},"modified":"2024-08-22T08:38:06","modified_gmt":"2024-08-22T14:38:06","slug":"part-1-do-denver-weather-and-climate-records-have-an-asterisk-attached","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/thornton-weather\/part-1-do-denver-weather-and-climate-records-have-an-asterisk-attached\/","title":{"rendered":"Part 1: Do Denver weather and climate records have an asterisk attached?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Two
Two airports, two different climates. How Denver’s weather and climate records are skewed by a 12 mile move. (ThorntonWeather.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ThorntonWeather.com\u2019s owner and operator used to write for a now-defunct website called Examiner. This was a national site but with locally focused content. As the Denver Weather Examiner, Tony covered a number of topics related to Denver and Colorado weather.<\/p>\n

Among them, he was always quick to point out how Denver\u2019s weather records were being skewed by the move of Denver\u2019s official weather station to Denver International Airport. In 2009, he wrote a three-part series explaining why this was an issue and why it mattered.<\/p>\n

Fifteen years later, this continues to be a problem and thus we are re-publishing the series here. While the data is not current and some of the images were lost with time, readers can still understand and appreciate the problem.<\/p>\n

Part 1: Do Denver weather and climate records have an asterisk attached?<\/strong>
\nOriginally published March 2, 2009, Examiner.<\/strong><\/p>\n

February 2009 is Denver\u2019s least snowiest February on record.\u00a0 A new record high temperature is recorded on January 21, 2009.\u00a0 Record low temperatures are recorded on December 14th<\/sup> and 15th<\/sup> of last year.<\/p>\n

These announcements are common and we all take notice when we hear them and they make for great water cooler chat topics but are these claims accurate?<\/p>\n

In 1995 Denver finally opened its new airport out on the plains east of the city.\u00a0 This new facility, 12 miles as the crow flies northeast of the old Stapleton International Airport, moved the airport from an urban environment to a rural one and more than 19 miles from the center of Denver.\u00a0 Following that move, the National Weather Service (NWS) began taking some of its official measurements at the glistening new airport.\u00a0 In doing so, some say Denver\u2019s climate records have forever been altered and as such any weather record should have an asterisk attached to it.<\/p>\n

Official Denver weather statistics were collected from the NWS\u2019 downtown Denver office from November, 1871 to December 1949.\u00a0 In January 1950 observations were moved to Stapleton International Airport where they remained until February 1995.\u00a0 From March 1995 forward, Denver\u2019s official weather has been measured at DIA.\u00a0 With the move, precipitation switched to Automated Surface Observing Systems (ASOS), an automated means of making the measurement.\u00a0 In a somewhat confusing twist, the measuring of snowfall remained at Stapleton until just this snow season.<\/p>\n

Map:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=39.819612,-104.886475&spn=0.337528,0.594635&z=11&msid=118280686911175493835.0004640da10c79cdcdba0<\/a><\/p>\n

The question many are asking – Does a move of 12 miles make that much of a difference when measuring the weather?\u00a0 Twelve miles is the same distance as between downtown and Golden, or downtown and Centennial or downtown and the northern edge of Thornton.\u00a0 How often do we hear about heavy snow falling at I-25 and C-470 and yet downtown remains dry?\u00a0 If you live in any of the outer metro area suburbs you know that what the news stations report as the weather downtown rarely is what you experience.<\/p>\n

Twelve miles, particularly in a topographically and geographically diverse area as the Front Range would appear to make a world of difference.\u00a0 That is why when you watch the evening news local meteorologists include the conditions at their local station downtown in addition to the official data at DIA.\u00a0 Most local meteorologists have railed against the move and are quick to point out that the weather as measured at DIA does not reflect what Denver weather truly is.<\/p>\n

When new records are announced, detractors point out that it isn\u2019t fair to compare the data compiled at DIA with that which was recorded previously at Stapleton or downtown.\u00a0 Just yesterday the National Weather Service announced that February 2009 was the least snowiest on record.\u00a0 But was it really?\u00a0 The NWS says Denver received only a trace of snow (less than 0.1 inch) but this was at DIA.\u00a0 The vast majority of the metro area had at least some measurable snow during the month and Stapleton, where official records were kept for more than 40 years, had 0.8 inch of snow \u2013 a number that would push it well out of \u2018least snowiest\u2019 contention.\u00a0 Many say we are comparing apples and oranges.<\/p>\n

Empirical data shows that every meaningful statistic has been skewed by the move to DIA.\u00a0 In this three part series we will take a look at how moving Denver\u2019s official weather measurements to DIA have skewed Denver\u2019s climate records and why it matters to you.\u00a0 Tomorrow we take a look at the empirical data showing just how big of a difference 12 miles makes.\u00a0 Wednesday we\u2019ll tell you why it matters and learn about some possible solutions to the problem.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned!<\/p>\n

Two airports, two different climates. Read the series:<\/strong><\/p>\n