It's been a dry fall in Colorado, particularly in the southern tier. The National Drought Mitigation Center's latest total has 345,042 residing in areas experiencing drought - 18.5% more than last week.
Central and northeastern Colorado have fared well with our recent winter storms - Colorado Springs has 80% of its normal rain and snowfall totals for the last month. But the same cannot be said for areas farther to the south. Lamar and Springfield haven't seen any precipitation in the last 30 days.
The good news - while we’ve had a dry stretch the last couple of months in Southern Colorado, we’ve had a very wet year.
East of the continental divide, Colorado is well above average since this time last year, with the Springs clocking in at 142% of normal and Pueblo at 135%.
In the springs, we’ve got nearly 25 inches of rain this year so far, nearly nine inches above average. In fact, we’ve already had the fifth wettest year on record and only need about two tenths of an inch to more to move to spot number 4.
In Pueblo, we're closer to average:
While we also had a wet monsoon season, rain in the last three months has been hard to come by - trending us closer to the annual average of around 12.1". All told, much of Huerfano, western and southern Las Animas counties, and portions of Prowers and Kiowa county are experiencing minor drought, but the main drought zone currently is in southwestern Colorado.
Overall, conditions are likely to persist for the next few months, with equal chances for above and below average rainfall in Colorado through the new year.
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