{"id":123293,"date":"2025-08-31T18:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T18:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/123293\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T18:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T18:27:09","slug":"will-recent-rainfall-help-reverse-western-colorados-extreme-drought-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/123293\/","title":{"rendered":"Will recent rainfall help reverse Western Colorado\u2019s extreme drought conditions?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Western Colorado has had a record-setting summer as hot and dry conditions have persisted for much of the season. While recent rainstorms have brought much-needed precipitation to the region, relief from drought may be unlikely.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an Aug. 26 presentation to Colorado\u2019s Water Conditions Monitoring Committee<\/a>, Allie Mazurek, a climatologist with the Colorado Climate Center, shared that portions of Western Colorado have had months and time periods breaking into the top 10 hottest, driest periods in the last 131 years on record in Colorado.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While there have been some statewide records \u2014\u00a0including tying for the 10th warmest first 10 months of the water year, which starts in October \u2014 many metrics show a \u201cpretty strong east to west divide,\u201d Mazurek said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This included precipitation for June and July, with some areas on the Eastern Plains experiencing slightly wetter than normal conditions, and most of western Colorado experiencing much drier than normal conditions, she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a state, Colorado experienced the 24th warmest July on record statewide, but a large segment of Western Colorado \u2014 including portions of Moffat, Rio Blanco, Routt, Eagle, Pitkin, Garfield, Mesa, Montrose, Ouray and Saguache counties \u2014 ranked among the top 10 hottest. Nearly all of the West was above normal temperatures during the month. Precipitation showed a similar picture, with the state seeing its 29th driest July on record and portions of the West Slope breaking into the top 10 driest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"July saw some of the hottest and driest conditions in Colorado on record, particularly on the Western Slope. Colorado Climate Center\/Courtesy Photo<\/p>\n

Looking from December to July, nearly all of Colorado west of the Continental Divide has broken into its top 10 driest years on record. Several spots \u2014 including portions of Moffat, Garfield, Eagle, Pitkin, Mesa, Gunnison and Delta counties \u2014 have experienced the driest year on record.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For some portions of the state, this summer has been the opposite of last year. Looking at the Vail weather station, the 60 days spanning June 23 to Aug. 21 this year have marked the driest in the last 40 years on record. The same period in 2024 saw the wettest on record, Mazurek said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"While 2024 brought Vail\u2019s wettest conditions for June through August on record, 2025 has seen the reverse. Russ Schumacher\/Colorado Climate Center<\/p>\n

The record-setting dry and hot conditions this summer have led to intensified fire activity and deepened the drought in Western Colorado.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Colorado is \u201cat the epicenter of the drought in the West,\u201d Mazurek said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Agriculture releases weekly drought monitors for Colorado<\/a>. The latest map<\/a> \u2014 which was published Thursday, Aug. 28, and shows conditions as of Tuesday, Aug. 26 \u2014 depicts an equally dire picture as the previous week<\/a>. While it identifies some parts of eastern Colorado where abnormally dry conditions receded in the last week, moderate to exceptional drought conditions persist across the west.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While this could have to do with the data cutoff for the map being on Tuesdays \u2014 with many portions of the Western Slope getting their heaviest rain after the cutoff \u2014 Mazurek said these regions will need more rain to recover from the current drought conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"While the latest Colorado Drought Monitor does not include recent rainfall, the West Slope is still experiencing moderate to exceptional drought conditions. U.S. Department of Agriculture\/Courtesy Photo<\/p>\n

At the start of the water year in October, most of western Colorado was not experiencing drought, but this started to change in the spring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDrought has been building in the western part of the state over the course of many months, originating back to last winter, when there was lackluster snowpack over much of the state,\u201d Mazurek said. \u201cThat led to the below-normal runoff we saw in many of our river basins this summer, and the abnormally hot and dry conditions that have characterized the past several months haven\u2019t helped.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mazurek added that northwest Colorado has seen \u201cthe quickest developing drought\u201d since October.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"At the start of the water year in October 2024, most of Western Colorado had no drought conditions. However, conditions have degraded following lackluster snowpack in areas and hot, dry conditions across the Western Slope.National Drought Mitigation Center\/Courtesy Photo<\/p>\n

Mid-August saw the first development of \u201cexceptional drought\u201d conditions in Colorado since May 2023. These conditions \u2014 which are the worst among the drought monitor rankings \u2014 cover around 7% of the state and include portions of Moffat, Routt, Rio Blanco, Garfield, Eagle, Pitkin, Gunnison, Delta and Mesa counties, according to Mazurek.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, while this rain is certainly welcomed and will help Colorado\u2019s drought to some extent, we will need quite a bit more precipitation before we can make up those longer-term deficits and see further drought relief,\u201d Mazurek said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Based on seasonal and near-time weather forecasts, relief seems unlikely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While this week brought cooler temperatures and precipitation, outlooks into September show a gradual warming trend with \u201cdryness creeping into the models,\u201d Mazurek said at the water conditions meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re done with the summer heat yet,\u201d Mazurek said, adding that areas around Grand Junction and Denver are likely to see a return of temperatures in the 90s.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While many areas in the state will benefit from the rainfall in the short-term, \u201conce we kind of get beyond sort of the first week or so of September, things are looking grim kind of in the longer-term outlook for fall,\u201d Mazurek said, adding that this is \u201cless promising\u201d for drought relief as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Climate Prediction Center\u2019s seasonal outlook<\/a> for September through November shows a strong likelihood for above-normal temperatures and for below-normal precipitation.<\/p>\n

For most of Colorado, over a third of its average annual precipitation comes between August and October, so seeing drier than normal conditions during these months could exacerbate drought further, Mazurek said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Based on the Climate Prediction Center\u2019s Aug. 14 outlook<\/a>, Colorado could see neutral conditions give way to La Ni\u00f1a in the fall months, a trend that tends to correlate with drier-than-normal conditions during these months, Mazurek said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heading into winter, however, these predictions show a return to neutral conditions, which Mazurek said is \u201ccertainly not great news for the longer-term drought.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"For most of Colorado, over a third of its average annual precipitation comes between August and October. Colorado Climate Center\/Courtesy Photo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Western Colorado has had a record-setting summer as hot and dry conditions have persisted for much of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-123293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}