{"id":3861,"date":"2011-09-04T07:09:14","date_gmt":"2011-09-04T13:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/?p=3861"},"modified":"2011-09-04T07:09:14","modified_gmt":"2011-09-04T13:09:14","slug":"august-2011-weather-recap-an-extraordinarily-hot-and-dry-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/thornton-weather\/august-2011-weather-recap-an-extraordinarily-hot-and-dry-august\/","title":{"rendered":"August 2011 weather recap – An extraordinarily hot and dry August"},"content":{"rendered":"
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August 2011 brought record-setting heat to Denver.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You didn’t need to know the statistics to be well aware that August was unusually warm and dry in Thornton and Denver.\u00a0 The month saw little precipitation and record setting temperatures became commonplace, particularly in the latter half of the month.<\/p>\n

For moisture, Denver recorded a mere 0.30 inch in the rain bucket at Denver International Airport.\u00a0 This was 1.27 inches below the normal of 1.57 inches.\u00a0 The month barely missed making the list of top 10 driest Augusts by only 0.02 inch.<\/p>\n

Afternoon thunderstorms were seen 12 times at DIA but only one brought measurable precipitation.\u00a0 The storms were typically high-based and yielded little more than wind.<\/p>\n

Thornton followed DIA’s lead with little precipitation as we only saw 0.27 inch during the month.<\/p>\n

Temperatures were the real weather story for August 2011 as rather than seeing cooler temperatures through the month like normal, the mercury stayed exceedingly high.<\/p>\n

Overall DIA saw an average temperature of 77.0 degrees making it the hottest August on record.\u00a0 This surpassed the previous record August from 1937 when 76.8 degrees was seen.\u00a0 The month also went into the record books as the sixth warmest month ever recorded in Denver.<\/p>\n

Temperatures ranged from a high of 99 degrees on the 25th down to a low of 55 degrees on the 20th.\u00a0 Through August 31st, Denver had seen 71 consecutive days of 80 degrees or warmer weather.\u00a0 This easily bested the previous longest streak of 59 days set in 2002.<\/p>\n

Seven individual temperature records were set during the month.\u00a0 These included a tied record high on the 18th of 98 degrees last set in 1986; the 23rd tied the record high of 98; the 24th set a new record high for the date of 98 degrees; the 25th set a new record high of 99 degrees; the 28th set a record high of 96 degrees; the 28th saw a record high minimum of 67 degrees; the 31st tied the record high of 98 degrees.<\/p>\n

Here in Thornton we were certainly hot but not nearly as much so as DIA.\u00a0 We recorded an average temperature of 74 degrees.\u00a0 Our warmest reading was 96.2 degrees and our coolest was 54.\u00a0 In all we saw 20 days with temperatures of 90 degrees or warmer.<\/p>\n

While the high temperatures were notable, DIA benefits from later arrival of the typical afternoon thunderstorms due to its location further east of the rest of Denver.\u00a0 This certainly aided in the airport recording higher temperatures than anywhere else in the metro area.\u00a0 For more on that story, check out the Denver Weather Examiner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Below are the official Denver weather statistics for August 2011.\u00a0 Click here to view Thornton’s August 2011 climate summary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

CLIMATE REPORT...CORRECTED\r\nNATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BOULDER, CO\r\n430 PM MDT FRI SEP 2 2011\r\n\r\n................................... \r\n\r\n...THE DENVER CO CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST 2011...\r\n\r\nCLIMATE NORMAL PERIOD 1981 TO 2010\r\nCLIMATE RECORD PERIOD 1872 TO 2011\r\n\r\nWEATHER         OBSERVED          NORMAL  DEPART  LAST YEAR'S\r\n                 VALUE   DATE(S)  VALUE   FROM    VALUE  DATE(S)\r\n                                          NORMAL\r\n................................................................\r\nTEMPERATURE (F)\r\nRECORD\r\n HIGH             105   08\/08\/1878\r\n LOW               40   08\/26\/1910\r\n                        08\/25\/1910\r\n                        08\/24\/1910\r\nHIGHEST            99   08\/25       105      -6       97  08\/22\r\nLOWEST             55   08\/20        40      15       47  08\/17\r\nAVG. MAXIMUM     92.7              87.2     5.5     88.6\r\nAVG. MINIMUM     61.3              57.9     3.4     59.0\r\nMEAN             77.0              72.5     4.5     73.8\r\nDAYS MAX >= 90     22              11.5    10.5       12\r\nDAYS MAX <= 32      0               0.0     0.0        0\r\nDAYS MIN <= 32      0               0.0     0.0        0\r\nDAYS MIN <= 0       0               0.0     0.0        0<\/pre>\n
PRECIPITATION (INCHES)<\/pre>\n
RECORD\u00a0\r\n MAXIMUM         5.85   1979  \r\n MINIMUM         0.02   1924\r\nTOTALS           0.30              1.57   -1.27     1.05\r\nDAILY AVG.       0.01              0.05   -0.04     0.03\r\nDAYS >= .01         3               8.6    -5.6        6\r\nDAYS >= .10         1               4.3    -3.3        3\r\nDAYS >= .50         0               1.2    -1.2        1\r\nDAYS >= 1.00        0               0.3    -0.3        0\r\nGREATEST\r\n 24 HR. TOTAL    0.27   08\/03 TO 08\/03   0.68  08\/01\/10 TO 08\/01\/10<\/pre>\n
SNOWFALL (INCHES)\r\nRECORDS\r\n TOTAL            0.0   NO SNOW EVER RECORDED IN AUGUST\r\nTOTALS            0.0   NO SNOW EVER RECORDED IN AUGUST         \r\n\r\nDEGREE_DAYS\r\nHEATING TOTAL       0                 5      -5        0\r\n SINCE 7\/1          0                11     -11        3\r\nCOOLING TOTAL     382               244     138      280\r\n SINCE 1\/1        863               688     175      762              \r\n\r\nFREEZE DATES\r\nRECORD\r\n EARLIEST     09\/08\/1962\r\n LATEST       06\/08\/2007\r\nEARLIEST                        10\/07\r\nLATEST                          05\/05\r\n..................................................\r\n\r\nWIND (MPH)\r\nAVERAGE WIND SPEED              8.8\r\nRESULTANT WIND SPEED\/DIRECTION   3\/202\r\nHIGHEST WIND SPEED\/DIRECTION    39\/180  DATE  08\/31  38\/190 08\/12\r\nHIGHEST GUST SPEED\/DIRECTION    48\/200  DATE  08\/31  45\/340 08\/12\r\n                                                            08\/16\r\nSKY COVER\r\nPOSSIBLE SUNSHINE (PERCENT)   MM (NO LONGER RECORDED)\r\nAVERAGE SKY COVER           0.50\r\nNUMBER OF DAYS FAIR            4\r\nNUMBER OF DAYS PC             26\r\nNUMBER OF DAYS CLOUDY          1\r\n\r\nAVERAGE RH (PERCENT)     41\r\n\r\nWEATHER CONDITIONS. NUMBER OF DAYS WITH\r\nTHUNDERSTORM              0     MIXED PRECIP               0\r\nHEAVY RAIN                1     RAIN                       1\r\nLIGHT RAIN                8     FREEZING RAIN              0\r\nLT FREEZING RAIN          0     HAIL                       0\r\nHEAVY SNOW                0     SNOW                       0\r\nLIGHT SNOW                0     SLEET                      0\r\nFOG                       4     FOG W\/VIS <= 1\/4 MILE      1\r\nHAZE                      5                                           \r\n\r\n-  INDICATES NEGATIVE NUMBERS.\r\nR  INDICATES RECORD WAS SET OR TIED.\r\nMM INDICATES DATA IS MISSING.\r\nT  INDICATES TRACE AMOUNT.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You didn’t need to know the statistics to be well aware that August was unusually warm and dry in Thornton and Denver.\u00a0 The month saw little precipitation and record setting temperatures became commonplace, particularly in the latter half of the month. For moisture, Denver recorded a mere 0.30 inch in the rain bucket at Denver … Continue reading August 2011 weather recap – An extraordinarily hot and dry August<\/span> →<\/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":[26],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3861"}],"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=3861"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3863,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3861\/revisions\/3863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thorntonweather.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}