How is the drought this year? (Fort Collins, Boulder: live, land, money)

[Rumblebelly]

We moved from Fort Collins last spring and I was curious on the drought situation. The summer of 2006 was really bad but I remember last August when I visited Fort Collins, it was relatively green. How is it this year?

[jazzlover]

The Front Range has been horribly dry and much warmer than normal just about all summer (read: brown). The mountains in northern Colorado seem similarly affected. Western Colorado has been warmer than normal, but in an unusual way--daytime temperatures have been consistently very warm, but not into record territory. Nighttime lows, however, have been consistently much warmer than normal.

Southwestern and south-central Colorado has gotten some moisture benefit from an early and fairly active Southwest Monsoon, but it has not reached into central and northern Colorado. The last week has been fairly dry and very hot just about everyplace (109 in Lamar yesterday). It looks like the SW Monsoon may get more active next week--I hope so, we REALLY need moisture now just about statewide.

[DOUBLE H]

I live west of Grand Junction, and 4 days ago the skies darkened up, I done my rain dance, and Voila!- 36 rain drops. Seriously, parts of the Grand Valley are really hurting. Some of the monsoon reaches but not where I'm at. A week ago Clifton and Palisade got a half inch of rain in about 2 hours time. Fruita, Loma, and Mack hasn't seen rain in 6 weeks. Getting to be very concerning. Walking on BLM land yesterday while stepping on the ground you can hear crunch, crunch, crunch. Kind of like sticking your hand in a bowl of corn flakes if you can imagine that sound. The bad thing is we're getting the humidity that comes with the monsoon moisture but not the moisture. Temperature today was 101.

[.gif]

it's the same old story every year. whenever it rains in denver, i always hear people saying, "we really needed the moisture." it's a fact of life out here that we are going to have droughts. just gotta get used to it.

[bullfish15]

Since May it has rained one time at my house. It was a Sunday evening and I remember the movie I was watching. Sad... isn't it?

[Katarina Witt]

The Boulder Daily Camera newspaper said the last significant rain in Boulder was on June 5.

[CosmicWizard]

DOUBLE H wrote:

I live west of Grand Junction, and 4 days ago the skies darkened up, I done my rain dance, and Voila!- 36 rain drops.

I told my wife yesterday afternoon that I got caught in the rain...5 raindrops fell on my arms during my walk in the BLM lands near the Tabagauche trail! You must have been under a bigger cloud than me.

Jazzlover wrote:

Western Colorado has been warmer than normal, but in an unusual way--daytime temperatures have been consistently very warm, but not into record territory. Nighttime lows, however, have been consistently much warmer than normal.

Weird summer all the way around. No triple digits highs in the month of July for the first time in 15 years. Yesterday was the first official triple digit high in Grand Junction. It was also the first triple digit high that I've experienced in the month of August, this being my 3rd August in Grand Junction. You're right on about the overnight lows. With so much cloud cover ( and no rain to show for ) holding in the daytime heat this summer, the night time temps have remained well above the norm. Looks like we'll set a new record for consecutive days of high temps at 90 or above. 49 days and counting, with no end in sight. The old record of 51 consecutive days was set 107 years ago. That being said, this summer still doesn't feel as hot as last summer. Last summer was nasty hot! The mean temp for July '07 was 4.92 degrees above then norm, while July 08 was a cooler 3.5 degrees above the norm ( alot of that was due to the higher nighttime lows ). July was the first month of 2008 to be ABOVE the norm. June was right on the money, and every other month was significantly BELOW the norm. Seems like global warming is only half of the picture. Global Extremes would be a better moniker. Colder winters AND hotter summers seems to be the pattern.

[sterlinggirl]

I'm not saying its Bob's fault, but there has been a lot of hot air ever since he moved back.

[brightdoglover]

Wish I could send Colorado and the Southwest some of the monsoon here in Massachusetts. I think the sun has been out twice this summer. Nothing ever dries out. I have mildew on the north side of my house. Vegetation doesn't crumble, it rots. The humidity in summers here only gets worse with each year.
To send some to my dear Colorado...

[bullfish15]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

Wish I could send Colorado and the Southwest some of the monsoon here in Massachusetts. I think the sun has been out twice this summer. Nothing ever dries out. I have mildew on the north side of my house. Vegetation doesn't crumble, it rots. The humidity in summers here only gets worse with each year.
To send some to my dear Colorado...

Let's think this over thoroughly... Sunny and dry, or cloudy and humid... Granted we need the rain but you can keep you east coast mugginess!