Denver set a record high for the date on Monday as temperatures reached 81 degrees at Denver International Airport.
It is also the earliest in the year that Denver hit or passed 80 degrees, officials from the National Weather Service confirmed. Previously, the first 80-degree temperature in Denver was recorded on March 18.
Temperatures first broke the record as they hit 77 degrees before noon in the city.
The record high for the date was 75 degrees set in 2012, forecasters said. The average high temperature for the date is 55 degrees.
The rest of the week is expected to cool down.
The weather service is calling for a 20 percent chance of rain late Monday night as temperatures drop into the low 40s.
The service says Tuesday’s high will be 57 degrees with a 20 percent chance of rain.
Denver on Sunday also broke its record high temperature for the date, topping out at 79 degrees at 3:45 p.m., officials said.
The previous record was set in 2013 at 76 degrees, said Frank Cooper, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boulder.
A ridge of high pressure has been hanging over the West, Cooper said, and that’s keeping things warm.
“That’s going to be breaking down over the week, so we should get back to more seasonal temperatures in a few days,” he said.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JesseAPaul
