Andy's Weather

Yes, I agree, Namoiste. But really, nom nom nom. Colorado (and me) is loving this moisture – especially the once drought-stricken eastern Plains. We’ve been through several rounds of wetness this spring – which is eerily reminiscent of the active period of snow between the Holidays and Valentines day where we saw consistent snowstorms.

TBH, I’ve been delaying writing about this upcoming wet pattern because I’m getting married (eeek!) outside next weekend in Denver and it’s looking wet. I know it’s good luck for rain and I’m all about it – I just hope it’s a passing storm and it doesn’t get too crazy.

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TL;DR

• Quick May Recap – it was really wet
• Drought is practically gone from Colorado
• High elevation snow coming
• Widespread rain through the weekend
• Long Range forecast looks wet, too.

May Recap

It was indeed a very wet and active May. Denver ended up having its 4th wettest May on record. Which is particularly impressive since May is our wettest month of the year. The city ended with 5.53″ of rain. WELL above the expected 2.16″ we normally get. 5.53″ of rain is 38% of our ANNUAL precipitation!!

Not all of Colorado benefitted from the wetness. Western Colorado ended the month with below normal precipitation.

It was certainly an impressive month of moisture around the Denver metro.

Drought Erasure

Clearly getting close to 40% of annual precipitation in one months time will do some damage to our drought and it in fact has.

Here’s a look at drought across Colorado in late April compared to late May.

In late April, 44% of the state was covered in moderate drought. By the end of May, only 6% of the state was under moderate drought – mainly in very rural areas. The big cities along the Urban Corridor are free of any drought status right now, as well as, ALL mountain communities! This is what we LOVE to see heading into summer.

Snowpack status and incoming snow chances

With all the cloud cover and rain, the snow in the high country has melted pretty slow. Statewide snowpack is currently sitting at 132% of normal as of June 1.

Most basins completely melt out by the second and third weeks of June but it’s looking a couple weeks delayed this year. With incoming snow chances for high elevations, we’ll delay this even further.

Snow chances will be confined to areas above 10,000′. That’s where 2-10″ of snow may fall through this weekend.

We’re mainly talking areas of the western San Juan, the Gore and Elk mountains and the continental divide from I-70 northward. The Sangre de Cristos may get a little dusting.

This means cool temperatures ahead this weekend for many! Plan accordingly.

Incoming Deluge

This spin you see on the satellite – is our storm. This will be meandering across the area for the next several days.

Rather than spelling it all out for you, here’s a quick vid of what were working with in the forecast.

To recap: this low pressure system will drag in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico dropping a lot of rain on the Front Range and central Plains.

Here’s a look at the anticipated rainfall over Colorado through the end of the weekend.

Many areas will see around an inch of rain. A lot of it coming Saturday. The is an upslope component to the winds so you’ll notice the Foothills north and west of Denver have a bit more rain expected.

The storms chances don’t diminish at the end of the weekend. It looks like the more widespread storminess will persist into Tuesday and Wednesday. Midweek next week is when we should start to move back to near normal temps and rain chances. And lets hope because my wedding is next Saturday! haha

Here’s a look at temperatures in Denver, Aspen and Berthoud Pass over the next 7 days.

I showed some mountain locations to get a sense of how cool it’ll be!

The outlook over the next two weeks looks as such.

Looks like more relatively cool and wet weather continues for us.

Although this forecast is not ideal for outdoor events, it is so great to have so much moisture here. Everywhere is so green and lush and it feels nice to have some humidity around.

Y’all enjoy the forecast. I’ll be back when warranted. 🙂

~ Andy