After a lengthy confirmation process, it’s now official. Colorado has a new hottest recorded temperature on record.

The Colorado Climate Center — the governing body for official state meteorological records — confirmed that a 115-degree reading taken this summer is now officially the state’s hottest temperature ever recorded. The reading took place on July 20 at the John Martin Dam near Lamar.

As described in August, the record was, in effect, uncovered accidentally. Washington D.C.-based meteorologist Ian Livingston tweeted a listing of each state’s individual hottest temperature readings, and the 115-degree temperature in Colorado caught the eye of assistant state climatologist Becky Bolinger.

Colorado's official state record is 114°. Can you tell me which station shows the 115°? — Becky Bolinger (@ClimateBecky) August 1, 2019

After that, the local National Weather Service and the Colorado Climate Center embarked on a lengthy confirmation process that included testing the equipment used to measure the temperature, and a National Weather Service visit to the John Martin Dam itself. A final vote verified that the temperature will go down in the record books as Colorado’s hottest temperature on record.

The previous hottest temperature record of 114 degrees was set in 1954 in Sedgwick. An 114-degree reading was also observed in Las Animas in 1933.

Temperatures in Denver on July 20 only reached 87 degrees and Colorado Springs topped out at 88, but a plume of heat spiked temperatures well above 100 degrees along most of the state’s eastern plains.

The new record temperature is also part of what’s been a record-setting year in a number of different ways across the state. In March, Colorado recorded its lowest official pressure reading during the bomb cyclone. In August, a new record was set for the state’s largest hailstone.

Denver recorded its latest 100-degree temperature on record in September, and the city also saw one of its greatest two-day temperature swings ever recorded just a week ago.