Pueblo breaks or ties three heat records in one week

If the final days of September and first days of October felt unseasonably warm this year, it's because they were.

The Pueblo area tied one heat record and set two new ones from Sept. 26 through Oct. 2, including one that tied the Steel City’s all-time hottest temperature in the month of October.

“It was just a ridge of high pressure that was just sitting over the area,” Cameron Simcoe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pueblo, said about the recent heat. “So with dry conditions and lots of sun, we just got hot.”

The record-breaking heat began Sept. 26, when the NWS’ Pueblo office reported a high of 97 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the previous record of 96 degrees set in 2020.

Four days later on Sept. 30, the mercury hit 94 degrees, tying the previous record set in 2019.

Then on Oct. 2, Pueblo once again recorded a high temperature of 94 degrees, topping the area’s previous record of 91 that had stood since 1979. The 94-degree temperature was not only a daily high, it also tied for the warmest day ever recorded in Pueblo in October.

NWS says September was 15th hottest in Pueblo history

According to the NWS, September 2024 was Pueblo’s 15 ^th warmest September on record.

Through that month, Pueblo saw an average temperature of 69.2 degrees, which was 2.6 degrees higher than the historic average. Pueblo also tallied 0.67 inches of precipitation, which was .02 inches higher than the historic average.

“September of 2024 followed the last few months of summer, in which a meandering ridge of high pressure across the Rockies brought periods of very warm temperatures, as well as allowing for a few passing weather systems and fronts to bring brief cooldowns and rain and higher mountain snow across the region,” NWS officials wrote in a September weather review.

“For the month of September as a whole, above normal temperatures and generally below normal precipitation was experienced across the region, save for above normal precipitation for portions of south central Colorado into the southeast mountains and far southeast Plains.”

How long will the heat stick around?

Simcoe told the Chieftain it’s hard to predict when the weather will cool down and stay cool for the fall and winter, but the heat’s expected to stick around for at least the next couple of weeks.

“In the immediate future, the heat’s going to continue — that ridge that’s bringing the temperatures is just sitting there still — so at least for the first half or so of October,” he said.

The NWS forecast for the beginning of this week calls for a high of 83 degrees with sunny weather on Monday and a high of 82 degrees with more sun on Tuesday.

More hot news: Pueblo's 2024 summer was historically hot. Here's what to know

Chieftain Editor Zach Hillstrom can be reached at zhillstrom@gannett.com. Support local news, subscribe to the Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo breaks or ties three heat records in one week