Official forecast calls for a wetter and cooler than normal August in Colorado
After a hotter and drier than normal July, the official government forecast for August suggests the opposite could be true this month.
July is usually the hottest month of the year and last month was even hotter than normal with an average temperature of 78 degrees. That is almost 3 degrees above normal which from a climate standpoint is significant. More than 75% of the days in July were warmer than normal.
Last month was also more than 1 inch below normal with precipitation but it should be noted the vast majority of days in July had at least of trace of precipitation and the monthly total for many rain gauges around the Denver metro area were substantially higher compared to the official gauge located at the airport.
For August, the national climate forecast published by the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) suggests wetter than normal conditions for most of Colorado. Denver averages 1.58 inches of rain in August making it normally the fifth wettest month of the year (May, July, June, and April are typically wetter than August).
The CPC also expects cooler than normal temperatures or at least "equal chances" for cooler or warmer than normal temperatures for a majority of the state in August. The normal average temperature in Denver is about 72.9 degrees. Only July is usually warmer than August.
Only time will tell if the forecast for at least slightly cooler and wetter conditions verifies. But one thing for sure is the first week of the month will be anything but cool. Temperatures in Denver are expected to stay in the 90s through next weekend with one exception. The high temperature on Wednesday may stop at 89 degrees. Not exactly cool!
Overall precipitation is also excepted to be less this week compared to last week. The chance for afternoon and evening thunderstorms stay below 40% through Friday.
