Drought to Persist

Drought to Persist

Maura Bennett
Maura Bennett

There are few areas of Colorado where drought conditions do not exist and fewer that are at average or above precipitation.

Drought experts say ranchers and farmers in Southern Colorado will not likely see relief this year.

Assistant State Climatologist Becky Bolinger used graphs from data during a recent webinar to explain the conditions for southern and southeast Colorado

Bolinger:“Currently we are at an almost 7 inch deficit or 36% of average there.”

And taking historic data from the months July, August, and September as a possibility for this year:

Bolinger:“And what it really shows is that there’s no situation where we could take historical precipitation and get back to our long term average. If we get average precipitation for the rest of the water year we would end at 60% of average.”

And for southwest Colorado :

Bolinger: “We’re at about a 6.5% deficit. 51% of average. Long term average; they end at about 18.5 inches. They’re not going to get even close to that. Most likely they’re going to end between that 10 and 12 inch range and possibly worse if there’s no showing of the monsoon.”

There is some good news for the Boulder area. Precipitation has been tracking above average for almost all of the water year. Bolinger says even of that changes, Boulder is very likely to remain at or above the yearly average.

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