Summer 2013 Colorado Weather, Rain, Monsoon, Thunderstorms, Hail, El Nino, La Nina, etc (Pueblo: college, roofing)

[Colorado Rambler]

^^^ I believe jazzlover was commenting on the present situation, rather than the historical one. The last few years Colorado's weather has gone haywire. Perhaps, jl will check in and answer your question himself.

Spotty rainfall in Southwest Colorado is happening now. Dove Creek got a little badly needed rain a few days ago and Durango got 20 minutes of hail (ouch!).

Cortez has gotten about ten drops of rain so far this summer. Monsoon clouds build up and send down a few rumbles of thunder and some heat lightening on the distant horizon. That's it. The monsoon has been a bust here so far.

We're been seeing highs around 100 degrees and lows in the 60's with a "chance" of T-storms. I'm not putting down much of a bet on that chance. The fake monsoon does make it more humid, and I've been running my small room air conditioner full blast. At least my living room is cool. Sometimes I come out and sleep on the couch. It's unusual to have such warm night time temperatures, but I suspect we'll have to get used to them.

Next week is forecast to be slightly cooler (low 90's) with zero chance of precipitation. It's going to be a long dry summer out here.

I'm planning on a trip up in the San Juans some time next week. I hope it will rain on me every afternoon as usual up there. I'll post an update when I get back.

[jim9251]

I've had rain every afternoon for the past three days now, and it's pouring now. Has really brought the temps down too. VERY nice!

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Colorado Rambler

... Spotty rainfall in Southwest Colorado is happening now. Dove Creek got a little badly needed rain a few days ago and Durango got 20 minutes of hail (ouch!). ... Next week is forecast to be slightly cooler (low 90's) with zero chance of precipitation. It's going to be a long dry summer out here.

I'm planning on a trip up in the San Juans some time next week. I hope it will rain on me every afternoon as usual up there. I'll post an update when I get back.

Accuweather says you're to get heavy rains the first half of the week in the Four Corners area..... lots of moisture coming up from TX off the Gulf of Mexico.

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Accuweather says you're to get heavy rains the first half of the week in the Four Corners area..... lots of moisture coming up from TX off the Gulf of Mexico.

I just now read your post after actually having got chased in from my yard by an evening rain storm - a real one! I hope it's raining on the bean and hay fields around here, as well. It sure looks like it's raining up in the San Juans, too!

It's a sad state of affairs when Colorado Springs gets more accurate reports of the Four Corners weather than the people who live here do. I think I'm going to delete WeatherUnderground from my favorites list. They may give great information for the rest of the world, but they're worthless for down here.

The Cortez forecast reads like it was written by someone who has had more than a couple of slugs of something. A few weeks ago the 10 day forecast was for a high of 85, low of 55 for all 10 days - straight across. WTF? A week or so before the monsoon season got going, the forecast was "Drier and sunnier." How can you get more dry than 2 months without rain? How could it be sunnier than 60 days with hardly a cloud in the sky? Two suns will rise tomorrow? Phoenix is extending a pipeline to suck out all our ground water?

Pffft!

[Mike from back east]

Light rain started about 7:25PM, coming from NE to SW.

It is now torrential and befitting of the word "monsoon." Headed your way.

If it really does rain like this most of the night, as forecast for days, it is going to be a hellish night along the Waldo Canyon burn scar, down Ute Pass and Hwy 24, into Manitou and hence down Fountain Creek to Pueblo where by tomorrow afternoon there'll be 27 inches of inky black ashen muck covering Josseppie's lawn.

EDIT: By 8:30PM the torrential aspect had reduced to a light steady rain.

[Josseppie]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Light rain started about 7:25PM, coming from NE to SW.

It is now torrential and befitting of the word "monsoon." Headed your way.

If it really does rain like this most of the night, as forecast for days, it is going to be a hellish night along the Waldo Canyon burn scar, down Ute Pass and Hwy 24, into Manitou and hence down Fountain Creek to Pueblo where by tomorrow afternoon there'll be 27 inches of inky black ashen muck covering Josseppie's lawn.

Then maybe I can turn my sprinkler system off. For the day anyway!

That being said not much rain here just a few light showers.

[jazzlover]

South centrai Colorado and much of New Mexico may see some record-breaking rainfalls in some spots early this week. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but it is worth noting that this precipitation is going to come from a very abnormal for this time of year low pressure system moving west from the Ohio Valley with just the right dynamics to fetch a lot of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and slam it against the eastern slopes of the Rockies. The system is massive enough that some moisture may "leak" over Continental Divide in New Mexico and far southern Colorado. Point being, this is a very abnormal system that is further confirmantion of some of the "haywire" (to use Rambler's term of art) weather patterns that this region is seen far too many of in the last several years. An Albuquerque forecaster with the NWS wrote that this is the most abnormal weather system for this time of year that he has seen in two decades of forecasting out of that weather office.

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by Josseppie

Then maybe I can turn my sprinkler system off. For the day anyway!

Jeez Josseppie, from the way you post it sounds like you're turning your lawn into Pueblo's very own version of the Amazon rain forest. Have any endangered species been found there yet?

My next door neighbor is a transitory migrant from the East Coast. He was telling me tonight that he couldn't even watch the ABQ TV channel because they kept interrupting to give news flashes about the rain they were having. Welcome to the desert Southwest. He wanted to know why rain was such a big deal!

Er, well - you see...

He just doesn't get it, but I'm sure he'll feel better when he goes back home to New Jersey.

[Rangerdude_Charlie]

These daily storms in the Springs have been nice for the past couple of weeks. I realize it ain't much but I am of the camp that every little bit helps. I do like the dry climate of the west though, this muggy sticky feeling is too much.

[jim9251]

An unusually strong closed low pressure system from the southern plains will move westward. This weather system brings deep moisture into western Colorado with showers and thunderstorms developing across the region. Areas of heavy rain is likely over the San Juan mountains and the far southwestern Colorado valleys. A Flash Flood Watch has been hoisted for this area where 1.00" inch of rain will be possible in the Watch area. Burn scar areas are especially vulnerable to flash flooding.