page_title: Boulder, Colorado
section_title: Climate
hierarchical_section_title: Boulder, Colorado / Geography / Climate
caption_attribution_description: English: Boulder after a snowfall. 06 February 2011. Español: Boulder con nieve en el invierno. 06 Febrero 2011.
context_page_description: Boulder is a city in the state of Colorado, in the United States. It is the county seat of Boulder County. Boulder is in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The city's height is 5,430 feet. It is 25 miles northwest of Denver. In 2011, there were 98,889 people living the City of Boulder. The Boulder Metropolitan Statistical Area has 294,567 people living in it.
  Boulder is famous for its history and its Western traditions. In the late 1960s, lots of hippies moved to Boulder. The main campus of the University of Colorado, the University of Colorado at Boulder, is also here. CU Boulder is the biggest university in Colorado. The city is thought to be one of the best cities for health, well-being, quality of life, education, and art.
context_section_description: Boulder has a dry climate. (Much of Colorado is dry.) It has many sunny or mostly sunny days every year. According to the Köppen climate classification, the city's climate is "semi-arid" (Köppen BSk). Winters are cool, but sometimes can get very cold. During the winter, the high temperature is usually in the mid- to upper- 40s°F (7–9 °C). The low temperature in winter can be below −10 °F (−23 °C) on a few nights. Usually it does not stay below 0 °F (−18 °C) for many days at a time. 
  Even though it is cold in the winter, Boulder does not get as much snow as the mountains. This is because of something called orographic lift. This means that the mountains in the west dry out the air as it passes over the Front Range. By the time the air gets to Boulder, most of the water and snow has been removed. Sometimes there are heavy snow storms, but not too often. The average amount of snow in Boulder is 85 inches (220 cm) per season, total. Usually only a few inches fall at a time. Because Boulder is so high up, the sun is very strong and hot, so the snow melts quickly. Sometimes Chinook Winds will make the temperature go up quickly and have the snow melt even faster.
  Summer in Boulder is hot and dry. Usually there are 27 days during the summer that reach 90 °F (32 °C) or above. It is much cooler at night because of how high up the city is. The hottest temperature ever was on June 23, 1954 and July 11, 1954. On those days it was 104 °F (40 °C). The coldest temperature was in February 1989 and December 1990, when it was −24 °F (−31 °C).
caption: Snowfall is common in Boulder throughout the winter
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