Friday, November 13, 2026

Denver drops to minus 14 and November’s record book surrenders

2014 · Denver

Just before 3 a.m. on November 13, 2014, the thermometer at Denver International Airport bottoms out at −14°F, breaking the previous record low for the date of −3 set in 1916.

An Arctic front had arrived on the 10th and refused to leave. By the morning of the 13th the high temperatures had stayed below 20 degrees for three straight days — the first time that had happened in November since records began in 1872. The low of −14 tied for the second-coldest reading ever recorded in any November in Denver (only −18 on November 29, 1877, is colder).

The previous record for the date, −3 in 1916, had stood for nearly a century. An observer in Elba, about 15 miles south of Akron, reported −24. Schools mostly stayed open. The trees, according to the National Weather Service, got chilled to the core. The next day the high managed only 13 degrees. By the 15th things were merely ordinary cold again.

For the record, the warmest November 13 on the books is 75°F in 1999. November in Denver has always been willing to do both extremes in the same week. It just prefers not to do them on the same morning.

Sources: National Weather Service Denver/Boulder · Extreme Weather Watch: Denver November 13

High winds give the Brown Palace a ten-thousand-dollar haircut

1983 · Denver

On November 13, 1983, winds gusting near 60 mph in the foothills tear awnings off the Brown Palace Hotel downtown and do about $10,000 in damage.

West winds at Stapleton only managed 46 mph, which is merely brisk by Denver standards. Closer to the mountains the gusts hit 60. Across the metro area there were scattered power outages and a few broken windows. At the Brown Palace, the famous green awnings that shade the sidewalk took the worst of it.

The hotel had already been standing for 91 years by then. Henry Brown and Frank Edbrooke had built it in 1892 as a triangular showpiece of Colorado granite and Arizona sandstone, one of the first atrium hotels in the country. Presidents and celebrities had checked in. The Beatles had stayed. A $10,000 repair bill for canvas is not the worst thing that has ever happened inside those walls, but it is a reminder that even the grandest lobby in Denver still has to negotiate with the weather that comes down from the foothills.

The awnings were replaced. The hotel is still there. The wind is still free to try again.

Sources: ThorntonWeather.com: November 13–19 weather history · Wikipedia: Brown Palace Hotel

Blair Rasmussen is born, and the Nuggets eventually draft a 7-footer who can catch

1962 · Auburn, Washington

Blair Rasmussen, the 7-foot center the Denver Nuggets selected 15th overall in the 1985 draft, is born in Auburn, Washington, on November 13, 1962.

Rasmussen played at Oregon, where he was a three-time first-team All-Pac-10 selection. The Nuggets took him in the first round of the 1985 draft and kept him for six seasons. He was never a star, but he was a reliable 7-footer who could rebound, block a few shots, and stay out of the way of the faster players. His best year in Denver was 1990–91: 70 games, 69 starts, 12.5 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game.

He finished his career with the Hawks and retired after the 1992–93 season with 5,119 points and 3,006 rebounds. The man born on this date spent most of his professional life in the powder-blue and gold of the 1980s Nuggets, back when McNichols was still the arena and the altitude was still an excuse for every missed free throw. He turns 64 today. Somewhere in the Front Range a basketball is still bouncing.

Sources: Wikipedia: Blair Rasmussen