Denver Sweltering Summers? (Colorado Springs, Westminster: living in, average, humid)

[Neditate]

Originally Posted by 'M'

The Colorado mountains can have hot summers, too!

They certainly can. We've had way too many 88/90 degree days this summer (remember, no A/C). Thank goodness for cool nights.

[Prodigal Native]

Originally Posted by 'M'

The Colorado mountains can have hot summers, too!

My wife and I spent a night in Breckenridge a few years ago during a bit of a heat wave. Coming from Tucson we were fine with the day-time temperatures, but we just about died at night. We were on the third floor of a condo that had no AC. They did provide a (small) fan and we opened the sliding glass door, but there was no cross-ventilation and it took hours for the room to get down to a comfortable temperature.

[superorb]

Ughh... Fri through Thursday says 99F or higher.

[khronus79]

I'll take a Denver 105f over a Florida 90f any day, the family and I are loving the weather here.

[superorb]

Originally Posted by BlueWillowPlate

As former longtime residents re-visiting Denver, it was interesting our watching friends and family cope with the heat. Some are traditionalists, some have embraced AC. Most people who do have AC try to avoid using it, only have it/use it upstairs, or sleep in the basement or on their first floor. We toured our former home, and the current owners put AC all over the place. All we ever had was a swamp cooler, and we just ran it a couple hours in the late afternoon early evening.

I'm in a 2-floor townhouse and our AC runs all the time. 20 minutes on, 10 minutes off. I recently insulated the garage door which helped a ton in the garage, but the AC still runs all the time. Tint on the windows would go a long way, but the landlord doesn't want it. So now my electric bill is over double what it was at the last apartment.

[j96g]

I moved here from Texas in July 2010. I hate heat and summer season more than the others, but I did notice two things different from South Texas. One, was that cloud cover and rain can make the biggest difference in the day's overall feeling. In Texas cloud cover would help, but itwas still very humid. When it rained, it only cooled you WHILE raining down to about 74-77 degrees and afterwards, it was steamy. Here in Colorado, the same rain can cool you down to 61-67 degrees, which feels like a cool front in Texas. Afterwards, while the humidity has raised a bit, it doesn't feel that bad like a steam bath in Texas. Second, Heat waves don't seem to last longer than two weeks. While it can be hot, we still get the occasional cold/cool fronts that can make a difference in a week. Also, some cool/cold fronts don't really change the temp, but you'll notice it takes longer to heat up. For example, in South Texas there are no cold fronts for months. The only cool down is from rain or hurricanes. Colorado gets breaks, look at June 20th high in the 70s (cool front) or July 8th highs in the 70s (due to rain/cloud cover). Also another example in the cold fronts, last year in July 27, 2011 the high and low where i lived was 87/64, the next day it was 88/59, the following day it was 90/60. Not much difference in temps, but what day was the cold front? The middle day (88/59). The difference? In the 87/64 and 90/60 day it hit 70 by 8am, 80 by 10am, back down to 70 by 8pm. The cold front day was 70s by 8am UNTIL about noon, then hit 80 until 1pm-3pm where it maxed out at 88, cooled back to 70s by 7pm.

[SouthXSW]

Just about every day during the summer in Denver it gets cloudy in the late afternoons, and usually there are thunderstorms or light showers somewhere in the metro. The cities in the foothills like Conifer and Evergreen have a much higher chance of rain, along with ones closer to them like Golden and Littleton and areas in the Palmer Divide like Castle Rock.

Like has been mentioned the clouds cool it off so while it may be 95-100 it quickly cools down to the 80's by late afternoon and then falls into the 60's by late evening. If there is rain it will quickly fall into the 70's in the afternoons and the 50's at night. This summer has been hotter than usual but it still cools off the afternoon thanks to the clouds and storms moving off the mountains.

[superorb]

Originally Posted by SouthXSW

Just about every day during the summer in Denver it gets cloudy in the late afternoons, and usually there are thunderstorms or light showers somewhere in the metro. The cities in the foothills like Conifer and Evergreen have a much higher chance of rain, along with ones closer to them like Golden and Littleton and areas in the Palmer Divide like Castle Rock.

Like has been mentioned the clouds cool it off so while it may be 95-100 it quickly cools down to the 80's by late afternoon and then falls into the 60's by late evening. If there is rain it will quickly fall into the 70's in the afternoons and the 50's at night. This summer has been hotter than usual but it still cools off the afternoon thanks to the clouds and storms moving off the mountains.

Yesterday it was around 80 degrees at 10pm. And it rained. A lot. It does not cool down to the 80's by the late afternoon; highs are usually around 3-4pm anyways during the summer.

Do you live in the foothills or at higher elevation?

[georgekds]

Is it just me?. I have been living in Colorado Springs and now in Westminster since 1998. I dont remember a dry weather like this. Is this normal and accepted once in a while to have such a dry weather or the global warming is really kicking in?. I think this whole summer we probably only had a 1 or 2 inches of rain and it is so very hot. Is it just me feeling that way?

[filmsequal]

I am observational about weather and i have noticed many strange things this past month:

The sun hasnt been visible until 10:30am for the past month. I remember in march the sun was bright at 7:00am.

Today, looking east from the golden area, the horizon was very brown looking.

I dont think the sun has broken through the pollution on avg. until noon for the past month.

It makes for pleasant mornings, sure, but it has severely affected my work productivity during the daytime. My brain just shuts down.