Steve Quayle News Alerts

August 1, 2003
By DENNIS DARROW
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

Showing no mercy, Pueblo's hottest month ever came to close Thursday with one last blast of 100-degree temperatures.

The high for the final day of July peaked at 100 degrees about 12:30 p.m., according to the National Weather Service at Pueblo Memorial Airport. Other parts of town reported a high of 101 degrees.

Then the clouds started to roll in, bringing with them the real possibility of more seasonal temperatures and rain in the coming days. Really, according to forecasters at the weather service.

The next week should bring highs in the mid-80s to low-90s as part of the region's usual late-summer change to wetter weather, forecasters say. The chances of local thundershowers also will improve.

"The increase in moisture is going to cap off the temperatures a little bit," said Richard Griggs, a manager at the National Weather Service's Pueblo office.

At this point Puebloans will take any relief they can get.

The last 31 days will go down as the single hottest month in Pueblo history.

July is traditionally the city's hottest month of the year but this July set a new standard for extreme heat, according to weather service reports.

Normally, highs in July run in the low 90s with the occasional spike to 100 degrees or more. This July, daytime highs reached 100 degrees or higher a record 23 days.

Fourteen daily high temperature records were tied or set, including a new all-time high of 109 degrees set on July 13, according to the National Weather Service. The old mark was 108. One stretch saw the city top the century mark nine straight days.

At one point the high hit 105 degrees for three straight days.

Less than a quarter inch of rain fell during the month.

And the low temperature on July 22 didn't go below 70 degrees.

July's heat was all the more noticeable because it was basically confined to the calendar month, unlike last summer when Pueblo slowly baked over the course of June, July and August.

Last summer's prolonged heat led to the three-month period ranking as the third warmest summer ever in Pueblo's history (with both June and July cracking the Top 10 for their respective months.)

This summer's burst of heat may not equal all of last summer - when drought also was in the picture - but July played its part.

In other measures of the heat, the average daily high for the month was running 101 degrees and the average monthly overall temperature (including lows) of 81 degrees.

The weather service will compile a final report on the average high temperatures and average overall temperatures for the month as early as today, adding in Thursday's numbers.

The previous hottest July was in 1970 with an average monthly overall temperature of 80.3 degrees. Last year's July posted an average temperature of 79.1, which was No. 9 on the list of all-time hot Julys.

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