Earlier this month, Fort Collins broke its record for the longest streak of days with temperatures reaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit or more by seeing 16 consecutive hot days.
But how often does the city usually get this type of weather?
Over the past century, between 1924 and 2023, there have been 2,306 days with 90-degree-plus weather, a Coloradoan analysis of Colorado Climate Center data shows.
But these days have not been distributed evenly over the years.
During this time, the average is about 23 days per year. The highest in any year was a whopping 57, in 2012, and the lowest was a mere 2 in 1950. And that might not be a coincidence.
That average is higher in the second half of the past century compared to the first.
More: Colorado’s 20 largest wildfires happened this century. Here’s how things are changing.
Between 1924 and 1973 there were about 19 days with temperatures above the 90 degree threshold every year. But between 1974 and 2023, that average jumped to 27 days per year.
So what does this year look like?
Adding the days through Aug.15, there have been 34 blistering days so far — already above average with several opportunities to keep increasing that tally.
A Colorado State University climate change report shows there’s high confidence that the temperature in Colorado has been increasing, a trend that is “strongly linked to the overall human influence on climate and recent global warming.”
And according to projections, this warming will continue. By 2050, an average year will likely be “as warm as the very warmest years on record through 2022.”
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: With warmer weather to come, here’s a look at 100 years of heat data
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