Are people delusional about Denver's climate? (oven, place, averages)

[sailelsa]

Katarina, interesting that you are using your AC so much this summer... I guess this summer would be considered a hot summer. I have heard other people saying they think it is a hot summer too.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

I just plan better than I used to. I avoid crowds when I want to just fine. I climbed a 13,000 foot peak a couple weekends ago. I saw 2 other people the entire trip up. I didn't drive on I-70 at all.

14ers are for weekdays and 13ers are for weekends.

[Phil P]

Originally Posted by sailelsa

Katarina, interesting that you are using your AC so much this summer... I guess this summer would be considered a hot summer. I have heard other people saying they think it is a hot summer too.

These last 2 years are the best CO has had weather wise in a LONG time. It's all downhill from here (assuming global warming didn't help us ). The 2000's were a lot dryer and almost as hot. I remember June 2013 being awful: 100's and bone dry and brown, then a wildfire to crown it off.

About the winters, I would MUCH prefer the 3 months of each season than what Denver has. What I hate is the patches of snow and dirt that we have almost all winter. I want it either snow covered or dry, not the mix.

I can't ride my bike or play tennis or golf because there's still patches of snow and ice everywhere throughout most of the winter. I have to wear boots to hike because otherwise I get snow in my shoes. On the flip side, I can't ice skate, cross country ski, snowmobile, or sled during most of the winter because it usually doesn't snow enough (again the last 2 years have been different) and it melts the day after it comes down (but never completely, which is why you get the snow dirt mix).

So basically you get to do neither for over half of the year. You don't get winter activities or full summer activities.

Can you go in the mountains to get winter activities, yeah, if you go to the continental divide and book off a whole day. But you can't step out your back door and do them, like you could in the midwest. There was like 4 days this whole last winter where there was enough snow to snowmobile closer than the continental divide.

And these heat and cool cycles are bad for plants, as I've said before.

And falls are good, but they are better everywhere else in the country, so that's not a plus either.

[bluescreen73]

Just wanna throw this it out there for good measure - at the time the OP posted this he/she essentially admitted to having never spent any significant time in Denver whatsoever. In fact as far as I can tell the OP's only view of Denver back then was out the window of a passing Greyhound bus.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by sailelsa

Things I like to do outside in the winter after work - get together with friends and go running, go bicycling (on bike trails with good front bar headlamp), go rollerblading with the dogs (one at a time ), go for a walk with the dogs, sit on the patio and have dinner or drinks, hike (again with headlamp). I haven't gone to a mall in... I don't even remember - multiple years. LOL

I believe there are running groups that meet year-round weather permitting, and they're pretty hardy about what weather keeps them from not running. Ditto with the biking, rollerblading, walking and hiking. Sitting on the patio for dinner, probably not. When I worked, I usually was doing well to get the dinner dishes done before I collapsed in the lounger and read a murder mystery. When the kids were home, there was homework to supervise, school activities to attend and the like.

Yes, this is a hot summer. The last few have been not so hot. I hate to use the term "cool" wrt the summers here. That has never happened. There are usually a few cool days every summer, something there seldom, if ever is in Champaign, Illinois. I've always said, it can be 70 degrees on New Year's Day and 70 degrees on the 4th of July here.

[schloe]

I agree, a lot of people are delusional about the climate here.

The winters here are not mild, they are just less bad than they are in a few other places in the country. The summers here are not mild, they are just less hot or less humid than they are in a few other places in the country.

In general, winters here are long and cold and somewhat snowy, but the general abundant sunshine and some beautiful days in January and February make them feel not so horrible. Summers here are gnarly. Go do some yardwork at 1:00 in the afternoon in July - the sun is INTENSE and you will get SMOKED. You can't even drink enough water to be outside for a long period of time on a sunny summer day, you will have to find shade. Spring and fall don't happen here, it's basically winter during those times with some summer climate days thrown in for good measure.

My guess - people who say the climate here is "mild" have never lived on the coasts. I've lived in Denver for most of my 35 years, but I have also lived in Santa Barbara and Cape Cod - they have MUCH milder climates than here obviously.

[BIG CATS]

Living in PHX and seeing the vast number of ex-Coloradans who have moved here, they testify to me all the time just how awful the Denver winters are. To someone coming from Montreal or Minneapolis or Buffalo, sure, Denver's winters might seem "mild", but in reality they really arent.

[empires228]

December is one of the two times a year we used to visit Denver and the weather there wasn't anything better or worse than what we were experiencing in Southwest Kansas. It was a lot drier and I always had to bring saline nose spray in the winter.

[Mezter]

Originally Posted by BIG CATS

Living in PHX and seeing the vast number of ex-Coloradans who have moved here, they testify to me all the time just how awful the Denver winters are. To someone coming from Montreal or Minneapolis or Buffalo, sure, Denver's winters might seem "mild", but in reality they really arent.

For a city with a true 4 season climate, it is "mild." In this case, mild doesn't mean there aren't extremes. It means that there are much worst places in the US that get colder winters and hotter summer. No one is saying the climate is perfect. When will people learn this?

[MN_Ski]

Originally Posted by Mezter

For a city with a true 4 season climate, it is "mild." In this case, mild doesn't mean there aren't extremes. It means that there are much worst places in the US that get snow and hot Summers. When will people learn this?

I totally agree with this.

A Mild winter implies a place that has a winter that happens to be mild. As opposed to a place that is mild during the winter...I understand this doesn't make sense heh.

Basically the difference is "Denver has a mild winter", or "Texas is mild in the winter". Denver has an actual winter, and for a winter, it is mild...however, it is not necessarily mild during the winter all the time.