Pending verification by the Colorado Climate Center and the National Weather Service, Colorado may have hit its all-time hottest temperature on record last month.
A reading of 115 degrees was observed at the John Martin Dam, near Lamar, in southeast Colorado on July 20, according to the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Pueblo’s database. While NWS Pueblo said last week that they had “no reason to believe it is a bad reading,” the record must pass a verification process before officially etching its way into the history books.
“It’s basically verifying that the thermometer is correct and verifying the data,” said Greg Heavener, the Warning Coordination Meteorologist at NWS Pueblo. “We’re just basically confirming with them to see if it’s a good observation or a bad observation.”
Colorado’s current all-time hottest temperature on record is 114 degrees, which has been officially set on two different occasions. The most recent instance was in Sedgwick on July 11, 1954. The first 114-degree reading took place on July 1, 1933, in Las Animas.
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