Denver/Colorado weather

[PTPatrick]

Well, despite a less than impressive winter we have made up our precip deficits and are actually quite a bit ahead for the year 2009 with 9.35 in the bucket. In fact, we have had more precip this year than in all of 2002(7.48 inch) and 2006(8.64) and we may beat 2008(10.21) by the end of the end of the month. Actually we have beaten all 15 of Denver's driest years on record in the first 6 months of 2009. We are only 1.63 inches ahead of Schedule though. Last year by this time we had only around 3 inches. I have been in Denver since spring of 2006 and this is by far the coolest wettest year I have seen so far. I have actually been bitten by a few mosquitos right here in downtown. June has been beastly hot for the past few years but this June with all the moisture we have struggled to reach even 90. I think we have once. Normal 90 degree days for June are 6, and we could still get a couple by the end of the week. I suspect if it doesnt happen by thursday though we wont have more 90 degree days in June as it should be wetter and cooler by this weekend. I have yet to put the window AC i the bedroom which I had done by about June 5th last year. We dont have any really beastly looking heat on the horizon either. I dont consider 90-92 awful here like many locals considering all the 100 degree and upper 90s days I have seen since moving here. In any case, I think much of this could be courtesy of the forming El Nino. My limited research has shown that El ninos starting in SPring have often featured wetter and somewhat cooler summers for Denver. My hope is that perhaps Denver is on the tail end of a almost 10 year stretch of consecutive drought years. Only time will tell. There is a lot of summer left, and surely some upper 90s days in the offing, but I say the longer it takes the better. And of course the way Denver weather goes it will only take 1 bad month to put us back down at just plain old average for precipitation. The good thing is as long as the precip keeps falling 100 degree and even upper 90s will be rare. It is just tough for Denver to get long streaks of heat with good soil moisture. Even this week was supposed to feature low to mid 90s and now that it has gotten a little moister than forecast the highs have been shaved back. Of course the average hottest week of weather in Denver is from about July 21st to August first...so again, only time will tell.

All and all I am loving this Denver summer and hoping it stays this way.

[tropicana]

i just checked, at the airport in Denver, it has yet to hit 90F this June..the hottest has been 87F on 3 consecutive days (jun 21-23) that includes yesterday when a thunderstorm dropped a record 1.64 inches of rain.

Pueblo on the other hand has hit 90 degrees and above 5 times so far this month, including a 98F on jun 22.

-justin-

[Stephanie]

My father is in the Wet Mountain region, southwest of Pueblo, and he said that they have had some decent precipitation this year as well. The last time I was out there, probably 4 years ago, I remember going to Pueblo and seeing how dry the Arkansas was from the drought. Hopefully, she'll be flowing all summer long.

[SaskatchewanScreamer]

Your weather sounds wonderful PTPatrick! So far our temperatures have been pretty nice too but we could always use more rain (I'd be happy with a good inch every week ).

[PTPatrick]

Not sure how much rain exactly but, i am thinking at least an inch which puts us ahead of last year's final total and we are only halfway through the year... We have dropped to about 66 degrees...its drizzling. Not our normal afternoon storms that spend their wad and move out. They are staying put and stratiform type rain as broken out which is a little unusual for this time of year.

[arizonasooner]

Wow. It certainly is amazing how weather can be so different over a pretty small distance.

This winter it was dry in Denver and wet where I live in Tulsa. And then we had a cold spring with a big snow at the end of March. Shortly thereafter, it snowed heavily in the Denver area and I guess they have caught up precip-wise for the year. In the same time-frame, we have gone from cool and wet to blast furnace with humidity.

Tonight I am in Toledo and we had a tornado warning. Had very good rain afterwards, and I am sure that will help the farmers around here.

[CajunMama]

Y'all were generous enough to send us snow last December...would you kindly share your rain?

[PTPatrick]

I guess the NWS agreed with me that it was cooler and wetter than normal. Here is the statement for the June summary. 2nd wettest ever June in Denver, and one of only 3 years since 1972 that featured no 90 degree days. What I find very ineresting that 1972, 2003 and 2009 are the the 3 years that featured no 90 degree days and all 3 were El Nino's. In 2003 El nino was fizzling by June, but it appears that in 1972 it was just getting going, much like the current one.
2003 was indeed also a very wet june with 3.95 inches of precip. I dont have info on precip for 1972, but I bet it was probably on the high side too.

EDIT: Got to looking and found some other eerie similarities. 2003 and 1972 also featured an very wet and snowy march to may period... 2003 with a developing la nina on the heels of an el nino ended up with a fairly active hurricane season, while 1972 was very quite as El nino was just getting going that summer. Ultimately in looking back...it would appear that almost every El nino episode since the 70s have ended in above normal snow for the winter season associated with it(this is general assumption since I wasnt able to exactly see the "beginning" and ends of the el ninos...although it seems that some of the above average snowy winters were on the end of the el nino. Needless to say I am hoping for el nino as that might portend a better snow season this years. Some of Denver's most epoch years for snow were el ninos.

...A COOL AND VERY WET JUNE 2009...

A TOTAL OF 4.86 INCHES OF RAIN FELL AT DENVER INTERNATIONAL
AIRPORT (DIA) DURING JUNE 2009. THIS WAS THE SECOND WETTEST
JUNE SINCE RECORDS BEGAN IN 1872. THE WETTEST JUNE WAS IN
1882 WHEN 4.96 INCES OF RAIN WAS RECORDED. THE DRIEST JUNE
WAS 1888 WHEN ONLY A TRACE WAS REPORTED. THE NORMAL
PRECIPITATION FOR JUNE IS 1.56 INCHES. THIS MONTHLY TOTAL WAS
SURPASSED IN ONE DAY ON JUNE 23 WHEN 1.64 INCHES FELL AT DIA.
THIS BROKE OLD DAILY RECORD OF 0.69 INCH SET IN 1906.

THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF 64.4 DEGREES WAS 3.2 DEGREES BELOW THE
NORMAL OF 67.6 DEGREES. TEMPERATURES RANGED FROM A LOW OF 41 DEGREES
ON THE 8TH TO 89 DEGRESS ON THE 29TH AND 30TH. THIS WAS THE FIRST
JUNE SINCE 2003 WITH NO 90 DEGREES DAYS. PREVIOUS TO THAT 1972 WAS
THE LAST JUNE WITH NO 90 DEGREE DAYS. THE WARMEST JUNE WAS 1994
WITH AN AVERAGE OF 73.5 DEGREES AND COOLEST JUNE WAS 1967 WITH AN
AVERAGE OF 60.6 DEGREES.

THIS WAS AN ACTIVE WEATHER MONTH AT DIA AIRPORT WITH 18 DAYS WITH
THUNDERSTORMS...NORMAL IS 10 DAYS...15 DAYS WITH MEASUREABLE
PRECIPITATION...NORMAL 9 DAYS...AND 6 DAYS WITH DENSE FOG...
NORMAL LESS THAN 1. HAIL WAS REPORTED 2 DAYS WITH THE LARGEST
HAILSTONE OF 3/4 INCH ON JUNE 13. IN ADDITION...THE PERCENTAGE
OF POSSIBLE SUNSHINE WAS 51 PERCENT COMPARED TO THE AVERAGE OF
70 PERCENT.

IN ADDITION...THE SNOW SEASON ENDED ON JUNE 30 WITH A TOTAL OF
ONLY 38.1 INCHES. THIS COMPARES TO THE NORMAL OF 67.1 INCHES.

[PTPatrick]

Today has been absolutely gorgeous for a lover of clouds and cool temps like myself. Took a long ride on the bike to Golden this morning and just enough overcast to make it feel nice. Temps today kinda bizarre...holding in the low 70s. This is highly unusual for July. I will take it while I can get it...highs this week supposed to approach mid 90s.

YEsterday we had a killer flash flooding storm rip through downtown around 5:00. I got 1.8 inches in about an hour...(am right a bit north of the hospitals near 5 points and we had a small cell pop up over use that dumped for about 10 minutes before the real deal came through,and the 2 kinda merged). I never saw rain like that here in Denver. There was also some hail and many of the manholes in my neighborhood floated up. There were reports of flooding of some business and a few homes around town, although I wouldnt call it "widespread". Funny story in the post about some people drinking in a bar on Colfax when a truck came through and sent a wave into the restaurant "knocking them off their stools". I am not sure it really knocked them or caused them to jump off the stools. Either way that was some storm.On another note I think all this rain and soil moisture is making for some of the most humid days I have expreienced in summer here in Denver. Normally 85 doesnt feel all that opressive here, but it sure felt bad yesterday. Swamp cooler still managed to drop the temp about 15 degrees so i guess it wasnt "that" humid. Either way I have definately noticed a difference. I know during monsoon the Southwest can feel almost muggy, but I have yet to really notice it here in denver. This may be because I grew up on the GOM, so anything less than 50% feels "dry".

[PTPatrick]

Well...so far so good on the heat and drought dept. We have had some warm days so far this year, but models keep overdoing heat here. So far I think the highest we have seen in low 90s. Definately not comfy, but not the beastly upper 90s we often have by mid July. Rain keeps going around downtown and certainly things appear to be drying out somewhat across the metro area as a whole, but it could be much worse. Spotty is the name of the game with July afternoon storms. Eventually we will get lucky again downtown. All and I would say July is shaping up to be "normally" warm and stormy month for most of Eastern Colorado, without excessive moisture or heat. I dont see much on the horizon that portend any heat waves for at least the Denver area. In fact latest GFS runs, which essentially go out the rest of the month would lead one to believe the hottest of the month is over, as beyond 10 days it shows the heat centered over Oregon/Calif/Nevada. I would be ok with that. That would also it looks like per GFS, open the door for more significant monsoonal moisture in the state the last week of July, right on schedule. Only time will tell.

[SCMedic]

Just last Thurs we had a great storm pop over downtown, and a single cell blew up over Erie where I live.. We had torrential rain, non-stop cloud-cloud lightning and pea-penny sized hail for about an hour. We picked up 2" of rain in that hour. It's definately gotten spottier this past couple weeks, but it's still nice, and have even had a few humid days.


I'm more curious what the developing El Nino has in store for the winter. Previous years would lead you to believe snow, but Bastardi's winter forecast says warmer and drier than last year. How is that even possible? lol

[PTPatrick]

I dont have a real good answer as to what El Nino will bring here. The effects of El Ninos on the front range appear to have been all over the map. Ultimately, I dont put too much stock in to Accuweathers maps as they tend to have poor resolution, and I have not read Bastardi specifically saying less precip for Denver/East of the front range. As you know, patterns that can leave the intermountain west and areas of CO west of the Divide high and dry, can often leave Denver and the areas east of the front range normal to wet....and vice versa. An example would be less than stellar ski years when Denver gets hammered and vice versa. Ultimately I think Accuwx prediction of drier than normal winter across the intermountain west could come true...but an el nino typical storm track could boad well for eastern Colorado as that puts storms into NE NM and SE CO/TX panhandle areas...good upslope conditions. He compared things to 02-03 winter which is curious.

2002-2003 el nino was an odd year. For one thing it was weak. And those years are less certain for storm tracks the produce good snows here. IT was also mainly focused on the central pacific...which I have read limited data and info on, but there is some indication that this doesnt act like a typical el nino. Thus in Fall 02 when the weird central pac el nino raged on we have a relatively dry Oct-January period. Based on looking at the anomlies for the that el nino and the progression...through much of the fall and summer of 02...the year of the fires, the water in the east pac was normal to even cooler than normal, suggesting that while "el nino" was happening...we may have still been more under the influence of a la nina type pattern here in Colorado.. The East pac, up against south america didnt warm in a more typical el nino fasion until later Januray 03...FEB, MARCH, APRIL, AND MAY of 03 ended up wet, and June of 03 acted much like this past June. El nino fizzled all together during the summer and the rest of the 03 ended up dry.

Ultimately MOST other el ninos of any significance that were going on during spring yielded good years for snow. Fall also ends up snowy while an el nino is going on...winter is always dicey. I could see a situation where if el nino stays true to form (and we really are getting more el nino like conditions now, so I dont have any reason to believe this one will act like 02-03 yet) we could see a snowy Oct-December time frame and then have late winter/spring more normal to dry if el nino fizzles by then. In fact...in 06-07, an epic winter, el nino conditions were there until we rapidly flipped to la nina by Februrary...March-May ended below normal snow wise despite a banner year of winter snow and weekly storms. So there you have it. Is it crystal clear?

[tropicana]

Denver has hit 90 degrees 4 times this July so far (thru Jul 15):-
Jul 1 92F
Jul 8 90F
Jul 10 90F
Jul 14 91F

All but one night has been in the 50s for lows ( sole night in the 60s was Jul 3 with 61F)

[bob rulz]

It seems that this June was wet everywhere...Salt Lake City had its coldest, wettest June since 1998, and in fact Salt Lake saw less rain than most of the surrounding cities. We tied the record for number of days in June with measurable precipitation, but only 1 day saw record rainfall at the airport since they missed most of the major storms. I remember 2 huge storms during the first half of the month at my house (which is in eastern Salt Lake City - the airport is on the west side).

Bountiful: 4.64 inches
Ogden bench: 4.45
South Salt Lake: 3.74
Ogden: 3.51
Downtown Salt Lake: 2.89
Salt Lake City (airport): 2.64

Just an example of how dry it was compared to other nearby places, but it was still 343% of average (which is .77 inches) and ended up the 6th-wettest June on record. Another half-inch of rain would've put it at 2nd place but 1st place was way up there.

Sorry if I'm hijacking your topic, I just wanted some place to mention this.

[PTPatrick]

No prob Bob

[PTPatrick]

Just thought I would post. Denver and the western suburbs got hammered with rain, hail, lightning and wind last night and brief tornado touch down in the city of Englewood. It was 10:30 when the sirens went off, which is REALLY late for a storm here, but is has happened a few times this summer. Great pictures at this link if you click it and then click on the pictures link on the right side of the screen. I would have posted the picture link but it is like a java thing. Lots of hail blanketing the ground on the west side of Denver.


http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/20 ... etail.html

[tropicana]

thats an amazing story, thanks for sharing that. Denver CO (at the airport) received 1.01 inches of rain, barely missing the 1965 record of 1.09 inches. A 48mph gust from the NE was also reported.

-justin-

[PTPatrick]

Was reading the disc from Denver this morning and this struck me as funny. He is talking about the rather bizzare pattern we are about to be in...

THE COOLER WET PATTERN MAY CONTINUE THROUGH MUCH
OF THE WEEK AS THE NORTHWEST FLOW ALOFT WILL REMAIN IN PLACE WITH A
LONG WAVE TROF PARKED NORTH OF THE GREAT LAKES REGION. ENERGY
ASSOCIATED WITH EMBEDDED SHORT WAVES SHOULD CONTINUE TO BRUSH OVER
THE AREA. TIMING WITH THESE SYSTEMS WILL BE DIFFICULT SO WL CONFINE
ANY ADJUSTMENTS TO THE GRIDS TO THE SATURDAY THROUGH MONDAY TIME
FRAME AND LEAVE THE REST OF THE FCST AS IS. WITH A PERSISTENT
PATTERN IN PLACE THIS MONSOON SEASON MAY NEED TO BE RENAMED THE
"CANADIAN MONSOON".

[PTPatrick]

WOW...is all I have to say. I took a bike ride up to Golden today and ended up passing through a Wheat Ridge neighborhood that was one of the worst hit from the storm earlier this week, and I was just in utter disbelief. I guess I knew 8 inches of hail accumulation, as well as some large hail, combined with downbursts could do a lot of damage but I couldnt believe what I saw. There were entire walls of houses that look like swiss cheese. From the looks of things the most sever damage was on walls and structures exposed to due north. I was on an east west street so most houses on the south side had severe damage on the north facing walls, while the south facing walls of houses on the north side were relatively in better shape. There was as least a 3 block wide stretch of homes without a north facing window left. I saw a couple of homes that looked unlivable. Fences blown down everywhere. Signs all blown out. Trees down everywhere (and let me say 100 year old cottonwoods dont fall gently...I passed one house that was literally cut in half). COMPLETE defoliation, and the smell of fresh cut wood everywhere. Chainsaws buzzing. I even saw hail dents in walls that were relatively protected by awnings, suggesting that it must have been almost horizontal at times. I cant imagine being woken up at 10:30 by golfballs coming through my windows at 70 mph. I was having total flashbacks of Katrina riding through there. it was like the twilight zone...and oddly enough I crossed the street out of thathood and it looked like northing happened. I would say the severe damage was about 2 miles wide stretches from about Kipling Ave to I 70. Anyway, here are some more pics from Denver Post.


http://photos.denverpost.com/photoproje ... 518&num=28

And some YOUTUBE links
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48Ycx_Aj ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=subr7nNCAW4&NR=1

[Stephanie]

My father's girlfriend leaves off of 32nd street, I believe in the Wheat Ridge area. I know she's on the west side of the city. I just e-mailed her and my Dad to see if everything is alright. I know my father was up in Denver last weekend.