Summer Weather at Garfield County Regional Airport Colorado, United StatesDaily high temperatures increase by 4°F, from 79°F to 84°F, rarely falling below 68°F or exceeding 97°F. The highest daily average high temperature is 90°F on July 12. Daily low temperatures increase by 5°F, from 45°F to 51°F, rarely falling below 38°F or exceeding 62°F. The highest daily average low temperature is 56°F on July 22. For reference, on July 11, the hottest day of the year, temperatures at Garfield County Regional Airport typically range from 55°F to 90°F, while on January 7, the coldest day of the year, they range from 13°F to 35°F. The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average summer temperatures. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day. Bījār, Iran (7,004 miles away) is the far-away foreign place with temperatures most similar to Garfield County Regional Airport (view comparison). CloudsThe summer at Garfield County Regional Airport experiences gradually decreasing cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy decreasing from 33% to 27%. The clearest day of the summer is June 29, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 76% of the time. For reference, on February 21, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 49%, while on September 12, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 78%. PrecipitationA wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. At Garfield County Regional Airport, the chance of a wet day over the course of the summer is increasing, starting the season at 15% and ending it at 19%. For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 22% on April 30, and its lowest chance is 11% on June 18. RainfallTo show variation within the season and not just the monthly totals, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day. The average sliding 31-day rainfall during the summer at Garfield County Regional Airport is essentially constant, remaining about 0.8 inches throughout, and rarely exceeding 1.9 inches or falling below 0.1 inches. The lowest average 31-day accumulation is 0.6 inches on June 21. SunOver the course of the summer at Garfield County Regional Airport, the length of the day is rapidly decreasing. From the start to the end of the season, the length of the day decreases by 1 hour, 44 minutes, implying an average daily decrease of 1 minute, 8 seconds, and weekly decrease of 7 minutes, 59 seconds. The shortest day of the summer is August 31, with 13 hours, 4 minutes of daylight and the longest day is June 20, with 14 hours, 58 minutes of daylight. The earliest sunrise of the summer at Garfield County Regional Airport is 5:43 AM on June 13 and the latest sunrise is 56 minutes later at 6:38 AM on August 31. The latest sunset is 8:42 PM on June 27 and the earliest sunset is 1 hour, 0 minutes earlier at 7:42 PM on August 31. Daylight saving time is observed at Garfield County Regional Airport during 2024, but it neither starts nor ends during the summer, so the entire season is in standard time. For reference, on June 20, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 5:43 AM and sets 14 hours, 58 minutes later, at 8:41 PM, while on December 21, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 7:28 AM and sets 9 hours, 23 minutes later, at 4:50 PM. The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation. MoonThe figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for the summer of 2024. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon. HumidityWe base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night. The chance that a given day will be muggy at Garfield County Regional Airport is essentially constant during the summer, remaining around 0% throughout. For reference, on July 20, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time, while on January 1, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time. WindThis section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages. The average hourly wind speed at Garfield County Regional Airport is decreasing during the summer, decreasing from 6.8 miles per hour to 5.6 miles per hour over the course of the season. For reference, on April 4, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 7.2 miles per hour, while on August 6, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 5.2 miles per hour. The lowest daily average wind speed during the summer is 5.2 miles per hour on August 6. The hourly average wind direction at Garfield County Regional Airport throughout the summer is predominantly from the west, with a peak proportion of 41% on June 22. Growing SeasonDefinitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere). The growing season at Garfield County Regional Airport typically lasts for 4.7 months (144 days), from around May 10 to around October 1, rarely starting before April 22 or after May 26, and rarely ending before September 13 or after October 19. The summer at Garfield County Regional Airport is very likely fully within the growing season, with the chance that a given day is in the growing season reaching a high of 100% on July 21. Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F. The average accumulated growing degree days at Garfield County Regional Airport are very rapidly increasing during the summer, increasing by 1,746°F, from 469°F to 2,216°F, over the course of the season. Solar EnergyThis section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation. The average daily incident shortwave solar energy at Garfield County Regional Airport is rapidly decreasing during the summer, falling by 1.7 kWh, from 8.0 kWh to 6.3 kWh, over the course of the season. The highest average daily incident shortwave solar energy during the summer is 8.4 kWh on June 19. TopographyFor the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Garfield County Regional Airport are 39.526 deg latitude, -107.727 deg longitude, and 5,505 ft elevation. The topography within 2 miles of Garfield County Regional Airport contains very significant variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 915 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 5,520 feet. Within 10 miles contains very significant variations in elevation (4,843 feet). Within 50 miles also contains extreme variations in elevation (9,403 feet). The area within 2 miles of Garfield County Regional Airport is covered by shrubs (78%) and cropland (19%), within 10 miles by shrubs (62%) and trees (23%), and within 50 miles by trees (49%) and shrubs (42%). Data SourcesThis report illustrates the typical weather at Garfield County Regional Airport, based on a statistical analysis of historical hourly weather reports and model reconstructions from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 2016. Temperature and Dew PointGarfield County Regional Airport has a weather station that reported reliably enough during the analysis period that we have included it in our network. When available, historical temperature and dew point measurements are taken directly from this weather station. These records are obtained from NOAA's Integrated Surface Hourly data set, falling back on ICAO METAR records as required. In the case of missing or erroneous measurements from this station, we fall back on records from nearby stations, adjusted according to typical seasonal and diurnal intra-station differences. For a given day of the year and hour of the day, the fallback station is selected to minimize the prediction error over the years for which there are measurements for both stations. The stations on which we may fall back include but are not limited to Meeker Airport, Eagle County Regional Airport, Aspen–Pitkin County Airport, Grand Junction Regional Airport, Craig-Moffat Airport, Montrose Regional Airport, Yampa Valley Airport, and Gunnison County Airport. Other DataAll data relating to the Sun's position (e.g., sunrise and sunset) are computed using astronomical formulas from the book, Astronomical Algorithms 2nd Edition , by Jean Meeus. All other weather data, including cloud cover, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and solar flux, come from NASA's MERRA-2 Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis . This reanalysis combines a variety of wide-area measurements in a state-of-the-art global meteorological model to reconstruct the hourly history of weather throughout the world on a 50-kilometer grid. Land Use data comes from the Global Land Cover SHARE database , published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Elevation data comes from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) , published by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Names, locations, and time zones of places and some airports come from the GeoNames Geographical Database . Time zones for airports and weather stations are provided by AskGeo.com . Maps are © OpenStreetMap contributors. DisclaimerThe information on this site is provided as is, without any assurances as to its accuracy or suitability for any purpose. Weather data is prone to errors, outages, and other defects. We assume no responsibility for any decisions made on the basis of the content presented on this site. We draw particular cautious attention to our reliance on the MERRA-2 model-based reconstructions for a number of important data series. While having the tremendous advantages of temporal and spatial completeness, these reconstructions: (1) are based on computer models that may have model-based errors, (2) are coarsely sampled on a 50 km grid and are therefore unable to reconstruct the local variations of many microclimates, and (3) have particular difficulty with the weather in some coastal areas, especially small islands. We further caution that our travel scores are only as good as the data that underpin them, that weather conditions at any given location and time are unpredictable and variable, and that the definition of the scores reflects a particular set of preferences that may not agree with those of any particular reader. Please review our full terms contained on our Terms of Service page. |