Analyzing Denver’s Rising Summer Temperatures: Climate Change Concerns and Observational Discrepancies

Denver very likely to finish with our second hottest summer on record here in 2024. And you look at the full list, and you might notice something. That over the last few years, we’ve seen an increase in these hot summers. And the entire top five list within the last 15 years. Now, a couple questions to get about this, and especially from climate deniers. Let’s be honest about it. People who want to say, ah, climate change is not really a thing. So some. Something that people sometimes point to, which is a little bit accurate, is that because the observations are taken at Denver International Airport. That might be skewing things a little bit, because before 1995, all those observations were taken either downtown or at the old Stapleton Airport between 1948 and 1995. Here’s the kind of issue with that is that the airport. Yes. Is a tick warmer, by about a half degree in terms of average summertime temperature than the Stapleton Airport, the old Stapleton Airport site. So the airport is a little bit warm. That may be skewing things a little bit, but downtown was the official observation site between 1882 and 1948. And downtown is about a degree and a half warmer than the airport. So if you’re gonna make the argument that the old Stapleton Airport is cooler than the airport, which is then the current airport, which is correct, then you also have to account for the fact that downtown Denver, Is way warmer than both Central Park and Denver International Airport. So if that makes sense to me. The way I kind of visualize it is that the airport, the current airport, Denver International Airport, splits the difference between Central Park, old Stapleton Airport, and downtown Denver. If that makes sense. I know that’s a lot of mumbo jumbo, but point being, I’m fairly confident in this number. Below that, yes, we are going to be talking about our second hottest summer on record for us here in Denver.