High Summer Humidity in Colorado = Thunderstorms

My son, in his first days as a freshman at Colorado State University, overheard some kids from Washington State commenting on how they loved the dry heat. He laughed. Yesterday was one of the most humid we’ve had in a humid-for-Colorado summer.

4:00 8/22/13 50%
50% relative humidity — a lot of water in the air for Colorado — completely hides downtown Denver from Green Mountain.

How humid was it? At 4:00, when it is usually about 10-15% humidity, it was 50% — unheard of!

I took this picture yesterday from Green Mountain just west of Denver to show the grey, water-soaked air. Very hazy.

The humidity turned into thunderstorms later in the evening. We got about an inch of rain on Green Mountain. At Denver International Airport (DIA), they broke a record, enduring a pounding 1.97 inches of rain, more than an inch over the old record of .75 inches.

8/23/13 3:00 27% humidity.
A still soggy 27% humidity reveals Denver in the distance.

For comparison, here’s a photo I took today at about the same time in the afternoon. The relative humidity here is 27%, but you can at least see downtown Denver. On a more typical day, the city is even more clear.

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