Dec. 26 — Call it a hat trick! For a third consecutive day Summit County broke a high-temperature record, this one from 79 years ago.
The official record-keeping station in Dillon hit 54 degrees Fahrenheit today, torching the record of 51 degrees from 1946. We’ve broken 50 degrees for five straight days.
This December has been abnormally warm with an average high temp of 41 degrees (4 degrees warmer than last year) and an average low temp of 17 degrees (nearly 8 degrees warmer than last year).
Dec. 25 — Summit County has done it again, breaking another decades-old heat record.
High temperature on Christmas Day was a balmy 54 degrees, smashing the previous record of 49 degrees from 1971 and 1919.
Temps have broken 50 degrees in four consecutive days (Dec. 22-25) and seven of the past 12 days (Dec. 14-25), making this one of the warmest Decembers in recent history.
All that should change by this weekend with snow and cold rolling into the county. By late Sunday temps will be in the single digits.
Dec. 24 — Summit County just weathered its warmest Christmas Eve in history, beating a record that stood for 70 years.
High temperature yesterday was 54 degrees Fahrenheit at the official record-keeping weather station in Dillon.
That’s two degrees warmer than Dec. 24, 1955, the previous record holder, and 26 degrees warmer than the 30-year average of 28 degrees on Christmas Eve. That’s right – most years we don’t even get above freezing. This year, holiday revelers were perusing Main Street in shorts and short sleeves.
Like this season the heat wave of ’55 was also very dry with just under two feet of snow (23 inches) all month.
So far this December the record-keeping station shows just over one foot (12.5 inches).
Denver’s record-breaking Christmas Day
Summit has a slim chance of breaking another heat record today, but Denver almost certainly will.
Front Range forecasters are predicting a new record of 71 degrees, beating the previous record of 69 degrees from 2005 and toppling the Christmas Day average of 43 degrees.
Christmas Day record in Summit is 49 degrees from 1971 and 1919. Today’s forecast high is “near 50,” according to the National Weather Service.
