Denver’s weather on Saturday continued a streak of sweltering spring temperatures that broke daily and monthly heat records.
Denver International Airport sensors logged 86 degrees at 4:53 p.m., falling short of the 90-degree forecast but high enough to make it the hottest March day since forecasters began keeping track, breaking the 85-degree monthly record last set … Thursday.
The temperature also set the new daily record for March 21, which was achieved 31 years ago, when thermometers hit 78 degrees in 1995.
Saturday’s high temperatures peaked in the mid-90s near the Kansas state line, topping out at 95 degrees at the Wray Municipal Airport.
Although DIA did not reach the forecast high, nearby weather stations reported hotter temperatures, including 92 degrees in Denver’s Baker neighborhood, 90 degrees in Lakewood and 89 degrees at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.
Weekend warriors trying to enjoy Colorado’s nominal snowpack instead saw temperatures rise to 68 degrees in Breckenridge and 70 degrees west of Vail.
High temperatures caused “widespread critical fire weather conditions” across most of metro Denver, the Front Range and Eastern Plains, and fire departments across the region responded to multiple grass fires.
Firefighters also continued to battle two wildfires in southern Colorado, with crews facing gusty winds and low humidity as they worked to gain containment on the 24 fire, burning on 1,167-acres of Fort Carson, and increase containment on the 141-acre Chama Canyon fire near San Luis in Costilla County.
Temperatures are expected to remain in the 60s on Sunday and but likely will return to the 80s by Tuesday, according to National Weather Service forecasters.
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