From The Colorado Springs Gazette (Ellie Mulder):
Most of Colorado is experiencing some level of drought, but it’s the worst in a swath of the state along the Front Range extending to the state’s northern, southern and eastern borders, including Fort Collins, Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo. That’s the area where there’s “moderate drought,” according to a U.S. Drought Monitor update on Nov. 8. The levels of drought intensity range from abnormally dry to moderate drought, severe drought, extreme drought and exceptional drought.
The last time El Paso County was this dry was in 2014, when the area was coming out of a drought that peaked in 2013.
Right now, the snowpack is suffering, but “we don’t have cause for concern yet because it’s still early in the season,” said Becky Bolinger, a Colorado Climate Center drought specialist.
Western Colorado has only 6 to 20 percent of its normal snowpack, and the Upper Colorado River Basin “has seen very little snowfall,” with sub-basins that have less than 40 percent of normal snowpack, according to the Colorado Climate Center.
Snowpack can impact future water supply: “It really gives us an indication of what’s coming down the line,” Bolinger said.
“If you have a low snowpack year, you’re not replenishing the reservoirs as much.”
But cities shouldn’t be worried yet, she said. The agricultural sector is experiencing most concern right now – dry soils and a lack of precipitation are impacting the winter wheat.
“Here at the Colorado Climate Center, we’re definitely keeping a very close watch on conditions,” Bolinger said.
In Colorado Springs, September was the seventh-warmest and tied as the 16th-driest, and October was the second-warmest and tied as the driest, according to Mark Wankowski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pueblo.
“The last two months have really dried us out,” Wankowski said.
So far in November, each day has seen above-average temperatures, and there has been almost no precipitation, according to the weather service. And there’s a fire-weather watch in place Wednesday from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. for parts of Colorado including El Paso County. The watch warns of gusty winds, low relative humidity and dry fuels: “Extreme fire behavior with rapid rates of fire growth and spread will be possible with any fire starts.”
