Nolan Doesken
Research Associate
nolan@ccc.atmos.colostate.edu
Here is a brief summary
of current climatic conditions and drought status
as of Sunday evening, June 9, based on COAGMET, airport
weather stations,
CoCo RaHS, and whatever other data I could get my hands
on.
Since I last wrote on May 31, we have had
beneficial and widespread
rains over eastern Colorado, but we have also had extreme
heat and
very low humidities. Today's dense smoke plumes are further
evidence of
our severe drought situation. It is not getting better.
The early heatwave last weekend (June 1-2)
was brutal with 100 deg F +
temperatures over much of southeastern and east central
Colorado. COAGMET
weather stations reported readings of 106 on June 1st
in Kit Carson and
southern Yuma Counties with 103-105 deg temps in the Arkansas
valley.
This was followed by welcome relief in the
form of much cooler
temperatures June 3-5 and the first major rain of the
year for many areas
of the eastern plains on the 3rd and 4th. Most areas east
of the
mountains picked up at least 1/3 inch June 3-4th -- which,
this year,
seems like a lot. But some areas did receive 1-2"
rains with locally
more. Over 3" was reported near Ovid. Some hail --
the first major
outbreak of severe weather for the year -- did accompany
the rain, but
not that much.
Since it waited until June, the rains are
late for helping wheat, but
timely for helping summer crops. Grasslands quickly utilized
the
water but at this time of year it does not translate into
much grass
growth. And for western Colorado, this was another dry
week. Places
like Cortez, Durango and Alamosa have seen no appreciable
precipitation
in months.
Dry weather and warming temperatures returned
on the 5th. A major
upper-level low pressure area, the type that can cause
days of soaking
rains and mountain snows if positioned properly -- and
what we all have
been praying for, teased Colorado for the weekend but
stayed well to the
north up over Idaho. Instead of bringing cool, damp weather
as it was
originally predicted, the storm only brought strong southwesterly
winds
and hot air from the SW deserts. This is the last thing
Colorado needed.
The hot temperatures, strong winds, and extreme low humidities
that began developing on the 7th and continued over the
weekend created
extreme fire danger in the mountains. Not surprisingly,
several fires
erupted and each spread ferociously on Saturday and Sunday.
As I write
this, I do not know the extent of damage, but the conditions
were about
as bad as they get from a fire fighting perspective. At
this point, no
part of Colorado is free of the expanding impacts of this
most serious
drought. Fire danger is extreme. Even in normal years,
the next 5 weeks
is a very fire-prone period as we wait and hope for the
Southwest monsoon
to develop and begin pumping humid air into Colorado from
the south later
this summer.
One benefit of the recent heatwave is that
it proved there was high
elevation snow left to melt. There has now been a rapid
snowmelt, and Colorado's rivers and high mountain streams
have been
surging. For at least a few days it actually looked like
a normal year
with tumbling water flowing out of the mountains. Unfortunately,
the flows are still well below average and will likely
not last long.
Cooler temperatures are moving into Colorado
for the early part of this
week. Winds will likely diminish after Monday. This will
help the fire
fighting efforts. However, no widespread precipitation
is expected this
week. In fact, precipitation of any kind seems unlikely
for several days.
The optimism brought on by last weeks storms will be fading
fast, if it
hasn't already. The drought continues.
Drought
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