It has been officially confirmed that Colorado broke its previous all-time record high temperature on July 20, 2019, when the mercury reached 115ºF near Lamar, 209 miles southeast of Denver.
The previous record high was 114 degrees, tied on July 1, 1933, in Las Animas and July 11, 1954, in Sedgwick.
Russ Schumacher, Colorado state climatologist, spoke to the State Climate Extremes Committee to discuss the new possible record, and the NWS visited the site to verify that they did observe that temperature.
“The interesting thing about this record is that it literally went off the charts — it was a weekend observation, so it was recorded on a thermograph that the observer checked when they got back into the office on Monday morning,” Assistant State Climatologist Becky Bolinger told 9News. “The thermograph only goes up to 110 degrees, and they estimated that the needle went 5 degrees above that.”
The committee then agreed that the 115-degree recording was valid and that it would count as Colorado’s new state high-temperature record. The NOAA confirmed it will update its official records to reflect.
