Denverites on Wednesday slogged through the hottest March day on record for the third time in a week as temperatures hit the high 80s across the state, with the heat reaching into the 90s in some Colorado communities.
Denver International Airport sensors logged a record-breaking 88 degrees at 2:50 p.m., busting the previous monthly record highs of 86 degrees (set Saturday) and 85 degrees (set March 19.)
Before this year, the hottest March day on record was 84 degrees on March 26, 1971, according to the National Weather Service.
Wednesday’s weather also shattered Denver’s daily record high for March 25, which was 75 degrees in 2012.
The recent stretch of sweltering spring days is thanks to a gigantic heat dome that is moving east slowly. Meteorologists and weather historians say it may end up being one of the most expansive heat waves in American history, according to The Associated Press.
Weather stations across Colorado logged temperatures well into the 90s on Wednesday, including 96 degrees in Greeley and Mack; 94 degrees in Fountain, Florence and Pueblo; 92 degrees in Denver and Southglenn; 91 degrees in Loveland; and 90 degrees in Lakewood, Aurora, Longmont and Fort Collins.
Colorado is one of 14 states that have seen their hottest March day on record this month, and a group of international climate scientists called World Weather Attribution said this week a heat wave of this magnitude “would have been virtually impossible without human-induced climate change.”
Denver is set to see a brief cooldown Friday, with highs in the 50s, before warm weather returns this weekend, forecasters said.
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