That’s another year in the books and looking back, there really weren’t any particularly notable events in terms of the weather for Thornton. We did end up a bit warmer than average and precipitation was well above normal.
The year started off on the cold and snowy side. January saw temps more than 3 degrees cooler than average and it was our snowiest month of the calendar year with 11.2 inches. The next few months were relatively quiet. After three consecutive months with below normal levels of precipitation, May arrived and Mother Nature let it rain. Thornton recorded almost double the May average.
June was cooler than normal and rain continued to arrive in copious amounts with us getting more than double the average. July continued to be wetter than normal and temperatures climbed with Thornton hitting or beating the 100 degree mark three times. August saw a bit warmer than average temperatures and again saw three days with 100 degree or warmer readings.
As temperatures cooled, we continued to run warmer than average. In fact, the last six months of 2023 saw warmer than average temperatures. Most notably, December was a whopping 6.6 degrees warmer than average. The last three months of the year also saw below average precipitation.
In the end, Thornton saw an average annual temperature of 51.3 degrees. This was a bit above the running 17-year annual average of 50.7 degrees.
Out at Denver International Airport where the Mile High City’s official records are taken, they were just a hair cooler with an annual average of 51.0 degrees, 0.2 degrees below Denver’s long term annual average.
Precipitation was most notable for the year as Thornton saw 21.89 inches of rain and snow melt. That put the year in the books as the wettest year of the past 17 years and easily bested the annual average of 15.30 inches.
Denver was quite wet as well, although not quite as much so as us. They recorded 18.94 inches in their bucket, 4.46 inches above their annual average.
Click here to view Thornton’s 2023 climate report.
