Heatwave covers southwestern states with hot dry air

Meteorologists and weather channels are all saying the same thing this week, the southwestern states are covered in a bubble of hot dry air. For Colorado, we are on the eastern edge of this huge heatwave and get to benefit from some unseasonably warm weather in the near future. While this heat wave moves across along the front range, there will be little thunderstorm potential and plenty of extreme drought conditions. What is more interesting, meteorologists are predicting that Western Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and California will most likely experience this abnormally hot weather for most of the Summer.

What is causing this extreme heat for Colorado?

It has been observed that the current drought condition in the Southwestern States is adding to this heatwave. The drought exacerbates the heatwave as the sun’s heat is warming the ground as opposed to evaporating water from the surface. This compounds the cycle of heat and dryness – which in turn just continues the conditions to sustain this unseasonably warm weather.

When is the hottest weather of the year for Denver, Colorado?

Typically, we see the hottest weather of the year for Denver and most of Colorado around mid-July. So with this current weather coming in in mid-June, it is safe to say that we are experiencing an early heatwave. The earliest 100-degree weather on record for Denver, Colorado is June 11, 2013. And the record temperature for yesterday, June 14th was clocked n at 102 degrees in the year 2006. With the current temperature and weather trends, there is a high probability that we will be setting records this week for Tuesday and Wednesday. If Denver, Colorado reaches 100 degrees for both Tuesday and Wednesday, it would be the earliest ever Denver has had two straight days of triple digits. Hopefully, this early heatwave hasn’t caught residents off guard or unprepared.