{"id":2839,"date":"2010-07-05T07:41:07","date_gmt":"2010-07-05T13:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/?p=2839"},"modified":"2010-07-05T07:47:06","modified_gmt":"2010-07-05T13:47:06","slug":"denver-records-its-wettest-4th-of-july-ever-record-draws-attention-to-climate-data-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/thornton-weather\/denver-records-its-wettest-4th-of-july-ever-record-draws-attention-to-climate-data-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Denver records its wettest 4th of July ever; Record draws attention to climate data problems"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_2840\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2840\" style=\"width: 304px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2840\" title=\"Rain record\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/recordrain.jpg\" alt=\"According to the National Weather Service, record-setting rain fell in Denver on the 4th of July.  But is it accurate to say that? (ThorntonWeather.com)\" width=\"304\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/recordrain.jpg 304w, https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/recordrain-150x98.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/recordrain-300x197.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 304px) 100vw, 304px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2840\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">According to the National Weather Service, record-setting rain fell in Denver on the 4th of July. But is it accurate to say that? (ThorntonWeather.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Heavy rain showers put a damper on a lot of Independence Day celebrations yesterday.\u00a0 Thunderstorms moved across the Front Range dumping rain and hail across northeastern Colorado with enough rain falling to set a record for the 4th of July.<\/p>\n<p>At Denver International Airport (DIA), 1.84 inches of rain was recorded.\u00a0 This easily eclipses the old 4th of July record dating back to 1909 when 1.44 inches fell.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Here in Thornton we weren&#8217;t nearly as wet having recorded 0.81 inches for the storms that moved through.\u00a0 Some of the other rainfall totals from across the metro area:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Arvada: 0.89 inch<\/li>\n<li>Aurora: 0.86 inch<\/li>\n<li>Broomfield: 0.57 inch<\/li>\n<li>Castle Rock: 0.71 inch<\/li>\n<li>Conifer: 0.31 inch<\/li>\n<li>Centennial: \u00a01.01 inches<\/li>\n<li>Denver (north): 0.51 inch<\/li>\n<li>Littleton: 0.26 inch<\/li>\n<li>Longmont: 0.43 inch<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Denver, we have a problem<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The rain totals at DIA were impressive however comparing them to the other amounts recorded at stations across the metro area once again highlights problems with Denver&#8217;s climate records.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/x-219-Denver-Weather-Examiner~y2009m3d2-Do-Denver-weather-and-climate-records-have-an-asterisk-attached\">As we have discussed before on Examiner.com, moving Denver&#8217;s official monitoring station to DIA is forever altering climate records<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The rain yesterday was heavy in places but nowhere in the central Denver area measured anywhere near the amount DIA recorded (see map below). \u00a0\u00a0When the National Weather Service (NWS) announces a &#8220;record&#8221; like the rain yesterday, it is comparing the measurements at DIA to historical records taken at the old Stapleton International Airport from 1950 to 1995 and downtown from 1871 to 1949.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Is it accurate to claim a weather record when the station doing the recording is 12 miles away from where historical records were made?\u00a0 Of course not and this is a problem.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/x-219-Denver-Weather-Examiner~y2009m11d12-Denver-gets-new-National-Weather-Service-monitoring-station\">Last year the NWS partially conceded to the problem and installed an official monitoring station in Denver City Park.<\/a>\u00a0 Denver&#8217;s official records however still come from the station at DIA.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The National Weather Service either needs to start recording Denver&#8217;s official statistics from the new station or it needs to quit comparing data from DIA to that recorded before the move in 1995.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Denver&#8217;s climate records are forever being altered and the public is being misled.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" aligncenter\" title=\"The National Weather Service recorded 1.84 inches of rain at the official monitoring station at DIA on Sunday, July 4, 2010.  No other station in the area recorded near this amount though. (MesoWest \/ ThorntonWeather.com)\" src=\"http:\/\/lh4.ggpht.com\/_qM6V6-HRzM0\/TDHaCDbaaeI\/AAAAAAAADuM\/xAvjPYin-wI\/s800\/2010-07-05_071106.jpg\" alt=\"The National Weather Service recorded 1.84 inches of rain at the official monitoring station at DIA on Sunday, July 4, 2010.  No other station in the area recorded near this amount though. (MesoWest \/ ThorntonWeather.com)\" width=\"560\" height=\"411\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heavy rain showers put a damper on a lot of Independence Day celebrations yesterday.\u00a0 Thunderstorms moved across the Front Range dumping rain and hail across northeastern Colorado with enough rain falling to set a record for the 4th of July. At Denver International Airport (DIA), 1.84 inches of rain was recorded.\u00a0 This easily eclipses the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/thornton-weather\/denver-records-its-wettest-4th-of-july-ever-record-draws-attention-to-climate-data-problems\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Denver records its wettest 4th of July ever; Record draws attention to climate data problems<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2839"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2845,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839\/revisions\/2845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}