September is off to a sizzling start and the trend is likely to continue
The dog days of summer are hanging around. That makes the closure of community pools and water parks this Labor Day even more disappointing.
"I think it should be open longer!" exclaimed 5-year-old Akemi, who found shade with her family outside the closed Congress Park pool in Denver. "Because it's so hot still!"
September is off to a sizzling start. Temperatures nearly every day this week may break records or come pretty darn close.
"I'm from Arizona, so this is nothing," said Roy Dunbar, who was beating the heat while building a retaining wall at a Denver house.
Well, it actually is something and state climatologists are taking notice.
"It's not even that it's just above 90 degrees, it's above 95," said Becky Bolinger, assistant state climatologist at the Colorado Climate Center. "Once we get to September, kids are back in school, there's pumpkin spice everything, we're expecting the temperatures to start to cool down."
Bolinger is closely watching a September trend. She told CBS News Colorado's Kelly Werthmann the month isn't just getting warmer year after year, the heat is getting more intense.
"It's happening more frequently now," she said. "We do happen to be seeing a more significant warming trend occurring in the month of September when you compare it to other months. You add that with the dry pattern, those are concerning conditions that we need to be preparing for when we talk about drought, agriculture, water management."
On top of that, there's the year-round fire risk. Plus, scorching September days can have detrimental impacts well into the spring.
"You're delaying the start of snowpack accumulating season," Bolinger explained. "Those will have impacts the next spring we talk about snow melt and runoff, and what that's doing to our water supply."
And during this year's September sizzle, playing in the water to cool down won't be an option much longer either.
"Drink a lot of water. A lot of water."
