(The Center Square) – Colorado’s Front Range is mostly drought-free following an above-average rainfall during May, while the Western Slope continues to deal with persistent drought.
The Denver area had 3.57 inches of rain last month, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data, with 2.16 inches being the normal amount for May.
“The Front Range mountains and I-25 corridor have fared especially well this May, with widespread accumulations between 100-150% of normal, and locally greater departures of up to 200% of normal across portions of the Denver metro and the Palmer Divide,” Bruno Rodriguez, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service, told The Center Square. “Conversely, the high mountain valleys to the west of the Continental Divide, as well as the eastern plains, reported below-average precipitation.”
According to Rodriguez, May is the wettest month of the year on average for many places on the Front Range.
“In that sense, the rainfall totals we’ve observed aren’t out of the ordinary, but have certainly been beneficial when it comes to accelerating the greenup and mitigating some of the abnormally dry conditions over portions of the urban corridor,” he said.
Some of the wettest locations for the month were in Larimer County, the southeast Denver metropoliian area and the western part of Elbert County.
“For the climatological spring as a whole (March-April-May), most places were just a little bit wetter than average, after a dry April and wet May,” Russ Schumacher, Colorado’s state climatologist and director of the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University, told The Center Square.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, which was updated last Thursday, most of the Front Range is not experiencing drought, while parts of northeastern and southeastern Colorado are “abnormally dry” or in “moderate drought.”
“The much bigger drought concerns right now are on the Western slope, where mountain snowpack was poor this winter, and the snow melted out earlier than usual,” Schumacher said. “Fortunately they will be getting some rain this week, but flows in the Colorado River system are expected to be much lower than average.”
Rodriguez pointed out that much of Colorado is getting a storm system with more rain early this week.
“This will get us off to a great start for the month of June and aligns with general expectations for the month, as the Climate Prediction Center is favoring above-average precipitation for June,” he said.
“As we progress through the summer, long-term outlooks from the Climate Prediction Center suggest a trend towards a drier pattern is favored, with the three-month period from June through August being slightly favored for below-normal precipitation, despite the positive signals for June,” Rodriguez said.
