Heavy rain showers put a damper on a lot of Independence Day celebrations yesterday. Thunderstorms moved across the Front Range dumping rain and hail across northeastern Colorado with enough rain falling to set a record for the 4th of July.
At Denver International Airport (DIA), 1.84 inches of rain was recorded. This easily eclipses the old 4th of July record dating back to 1909 when 1.44 inches fell.
Here in Thornton we weren’t nearly as wet having recorded 0.81 inches for the storms that moved through. Some of the other rainfall totals from across the metro area:
- Arvada: 0.89 inch
- Aurora: 0.86 inch
- Broomfield: 0.57 inch
- Castle Rock: 0.71 inch
- Conifer: 0.31 inch
- Centennial: 1.01 inches
- Denver (north): 0.51 inch
- Littleton: 0.26 inch
- Longmont: 0.43 inch
Denver, we have a problem
The rain totals at DIA were impressive however comparing them to the other amounts recorded at stations across the metro area once again highlights problems with Denver’s climate records. As we have discussed before on Examiner.com, moving Denver’s official monitoring station to DIA is forever altering climate records.
The rain yesterday was heavy in places but nowhere in the central Denver area measured anywhere near the amount DIA recorded (see map below). When the National Weather Service (NWS) announces a “record” like the rain yesterday, it is comparing the measurements at DIA to historical records taken at the old Stapleton International Airport from 1950 to 1995 and downtown from 1871 to 1949.
Is it accurate to claim a weather record when the station doing the recording is 12 miles away from where historical records were made? Of course not and this is a problem.
Last year the NWS partially conceded to the problem and installed an official monitoring station in Denver City Park. Denver’s official records however still come from the station at DIA.
The National Weather Service either needs to start recording Denver’s official statistics from the new station or it needs to quit comparing data from DIA to that recorded before the move in 1995.
Denver’s climate records are forever being altered and the public is being misled.
