{"id":709163,"date":"2026-06-17T08:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T08:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/709163\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T08:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T08:24:09","slug":"it-wont-end-the-drought-but-super-el-nino-expected-to-boost-colorado-moisture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/709163\/","title":{"rendered":"It won’t end the drought, but Super El Ni\u00f1o expected to boost Colorado moisture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colorado is headed into what could be one of its strongest El Ni\u00f1o summers on record, a shift expected to bring above\u2011average monsoon moisture, though not enough to erase the state\u2019s long\u2011running drought.<\/p>\n

That was the assessment on Tuesday from the Water Conditions Monitoring Committee, a group of state and federal water officials and local water managers.<\/p>\n

Russ Schumacher, the state climatologist based at Colorado State University\u2019s Colorado Climate Center, said the summer monsoon season, which could start as soon as the second week of July, will be wetter than average and possibly one of the strongest El Ni\u00f1os that Colorado has ever had.<\/p>\n

That means Colorado is less likely to stay in long-term drought conditions. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re happy to see it here, but a lot of places won\u2019t be happy,\u201d Schumacher said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Drought outlook from NOAA and the Colorado Climate Center, June 16, 2026. (Courtesy, Colorado Climate Center)<\/p>\n

The moisture could bring record-high temperatures, too.<\/p>\n

Part of the reason for a Super El Ni\u00f1o \u2014 and the high temperatures that come with it \u2014 is temperature change, according to Schumacher.<\/p>\n

An El Ni\u00f1o occurs<\/a>\u00a0when temperatures in the equatorial Pacific are 0.5\u00b0C above average for several consecutive months, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. <\/p>\n

Its impact is felt most strongly during the winter months, but it can also cause coastal flooding, particularly on the West Coast.<\/p>\n

As for temperatures, Schumacher said the current water year \u2014 Oct. 1 through this week \u2014 has been by far the warmest on record and among the top 10 driest in the state.<\/p>\n

\"\"Wildfire risk in Colorado is expected to be highest on the Western Slope. (Courtesy, Colorado Climate Center.)<\/p>\n

A report from Nagam Bell of the Natural Resources Conservation Service showed the state of Colorado\u2019s reservoirs and soil conditions as the first storms from El Ni\u00f1o are on the horizon.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s snowpack is gone, she said, about 36 days earlier than normal.<\/p>\n

Reservoirs around the state are at 75% of median, Bell reported, but that\u2019s higher, in part, due to the storms that hit southwestern Colorado last fall. Most western slope reservoirs are lower than usual, she added.<\/p>\n

June\u2019s precipitation to date is dismal, she indicated, showing the state has seen only 14% of the median precipitation it should expect for this time of year.<\/p>\n

\"\"Colorado reservoir storage as of May 31, 2026. (Courtesy Natural Resources Conservation Service, US Dept. of Agriculture.)<\/p>\n

Experts who keep an eye on local reservoirs and water use are also optimistic about the El Ni\u00f1o forecast.<\/p>\n

Denver Water\u2019s Nathan Elder said the reservoirs they rely on are 81% full, about 2% above where they expected them to be in June.<\/p>\n

Northern Water\u2019s Emily Carbone said their storage, at 75%, is the lowest since 2014, and they expect the shortages to increase over the summer.<\/p>\n

Drew Beckwith at the City of Westminster struck a more optimistic tone: With local storage at 96% of capacity, they\u2019re keeping their fingers crossed for a strong El Ni\u00f1o summer.<\/p>\n

Snowpack in Colorado had peaked at about 58% of normal \u2014 and weeks earlier than usual. An unusually warm March accelerated the melt, and parched soils will absorb much of that runoff before it ever reaches streams and reservoirs \u2014 leaving less water flowing downstream.<\/p>\n

The snowpack doesn\u2019t just feed the Colorado River. It supplies rivers across the region, including the South Platte, which provides water to much of the Denver metro area. But the already strained Colorado River is where the impact is most visible, experts have said.<\/p>\n

The Colorado River has always cycled through wet and dry years. But over the past two decades, prolonged drought and rising temperatures have reduced the river\u2019s overall flow \u2014 a trend water experts say is unlikely to reverse.<\/p>\n

The stakes extend far beyond Colorado.<\/p>\n

In Arizona, roughly 85% of residents live in cities that rely, at least in part, on the river.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe snowpack was destroyed by the temperatures and lack of precipitation the likes of which have never occurred in the basin,\u201d Brad Udall, senior water and climate research scholar at Colorado State University\u2019s Colorado Water Center, earlier said.<\/p>\n

Udall added, \u201cThe river basin was already in dire straits. This only makes it worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, cities across the Denver metro region have imposed water restrictions \u2014 a strategy adopted so early in the year that it reflects how quickly conditions have deteriorated.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy many measures, it\u2019s the worst snowpack that we\u2019ve seen,\u201d Nathan Elder, manager of water supply with Denver Water, earlier said. \u201cThe numbers really are alarming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reporter Nico Brambila contributed to this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colorado is headed into what could be one of its strongest El Ni\u00f1o summers on record, a shift…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[15229,192,3,79,2443,305975],"class_list":["post-709163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-drought","tag-environment","tag-news","tag-science","tag-top-story","tag-water-conditions-monitoring-committee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709163","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=709163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}