Denver just had its hottest night since 1881

Did last night (Sunday into Monday, July 26-27) feel like the hottest night ever? Well, it basically was in Denver…

Denver recorded its warmest official overnight low temperature in 145 years, with the thermometer at Denver International Airport refusing to dip below 76 degrees and Denver’s Central Park station holding at 77. Downtown Denver, measured by 9NEWS, was even worse — an 80-degree overnight low, which is the kind of number that makes you question whether your air conditioner is broken, your windows are open, or the sun simply decided not to set.

The culprit? Cloud cover. Sunday’s high of 103 degrees — the hottest Denver had been in more than eight years and a new record for July 26 — pumped so much heat into the atmosphere that when clouds rolled in overnight, they acted like a lid on a pot, trapping the warmth and preventing the normal overnight cool-down that Denver usually relies on. The result was the second-warmest overnight low in Denver’s entire recorded history, and the warmest since 1881.

9NEWS meteorologist Chris Bianchi called the readings “astonishingly warm,” noting on Instagram that if the temperature held through midnight — and it did — the record would stand. For context, Denver’s typical overnight low in late July is around 59 degrees. Monday’s low was nearly 20 degrees above that. This is a city at 5,280 feet of elevation that people move to specifically because “but it cools down at night.” Last night, it didn’t.

The good news? Monsoonal moisture is beginning to build across the state this week, which should gradually ease the heat and bring rain chances back to the Front Range. The bad news?