I don't know whether it's made the US national news but Denver yesterday set a record for the most consecutive days with a high temperature of more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Yet this is the coolest summer I can remember.

Today, 1 August, will be the first day when it will have gone above 100 F. Normally we will have seen at least one 100+ day by late June. This year it will have happened for the first time today and tomorrow -- in August rather than June, and it won't surprise me if it doesn't happen again this year.

Not only are we having a cool summer, we had a cold spring but a warm winter. In fact, this past winter was the first time in 30 years of living in Colorado when I did not need to use a snow shovel. Not once. (And we didn't get much snow, either.)

We have been seeing jet contrails all spring and early summer. Only in the past few days have the contrails gone away. When they return it will be fall, and given what has been happening since the end of winter the coming of fall could happen at any time.

We already have Canada geese passing through on their way south for the winter. The part of Lakewood (suburban Denver) that we live in is on their flyway. The geese officially have the right of way on the roads. In fact, we have goose crossing roadsigns just as a mile or two away we have deer crossing signs.

So even if we end up with several more 100+ days, it looks to be an early winter, though probably a mild one.

Yes, winter arrives early here, or at least it used to. I remember a blizzard on 20 September one year. In compensation we have the "January thaw", which often raises the temperature to 70 F, clearing out all the snow albeit temporarily.