If all this warm and dry November weather has you thinking back to October when there was quite a bit more happening, our monthly summary is for you. Including the big southwest rainstorm and flood, a lack of mountain snow, and more warmth on the Plains: climate.colostate.edu/monthly_summ... #cowx

The sun is bringing the beauty both night and day this week with overnight Aurora's followed by a spectacular sunrise with morning's first light splashing on the underside of a cloud deck over Colorado.

We hope you've been looking up tonight! Here's our view from Fort Collins a little earlier 🌌

Water Year 2025 was the 10th warmest on record for Colorado and featured drought, fires, floods, and even a record-setting snowstorm. We recap all that and more in our Colorado Water Year 2025 Summary! ⬇️

Big temperature swings this week! Loop: Map showing the forecast high (max) temperature departure from normal Today - Sunday. 🟦Much BELOW normal temperatures 🟥Much ABOVE normal temperatures weather.gov

The Guinness World Records lists the largest volunteer weather observation network as CoCoRaHS based out of CSU at our @climate.colostate.edu. CoCoRaHS is a grassroots volunteer network of backyard weather observers of all ages and backgrounds. www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-record...

“Some of the smaller, more local reservoirs saw significant improvement,” said Peter Goble, a climatologist for the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University. “If we look at our reservoir giants, like Powell and Mead, unfortunately at that scale this is kind of a drop in the bucket.”

Lots of new daily high temperature records were set across Colorado yesterday, some by more than 5℉! ☀️

It's been a busy couple of weeks of drought improvements across Colorado! Here's a recap of what's changed in the past two weeks across the state. 🌧️ And ICYMI, check out our previous post for a summary of the remarkable rainfall that brought these major changes to the Drought Monitor.

Some further details on the rainfall and flooding in southwest Colorado last week, including storm-total rain amounts, comparison to a similar event in October 1911, and improvements to the drought situation in the area. #cowx

There were major improvements to this week's drought monitor following the significant precipitation and flooding that impacted western CO over the past week. Changes include two-category improvements over portions of southwest CO, many of which are now drought-free. #cowx

Some early analysis of the major rainfall and flooding in southwest Colorado this weekend in this blog post. It was one of the largest fall rainstorms ever to hit the region, and resulted in major flooding on the San Juan River in Pagosa Springs and on Vallecito Creek, among other locations. #cowx

Flooding forces evacuations on Vallecito Creek in southern Colorado trib.al/vZNcTyB

Follow the ongoing rainstorm in southwestern Colorado with CoAgMET: already nearly an inch of rain today near Durango! #cowx coagmet.colostate.edu/maps/precip/...

Highly unusual situation approaching western Colorado with the moisture from Hurricane Priscilla. Grand Junction has never had precipitable water over an inch (25mm) so late in the year, but looks like it will be near that level on both Fri & Sat. Six standard deviations above average! #cowx 1/2

Most of Colorado's lower elevations haven't yet had a freeze this fall, but it'll get cold sooner or later. Here's our blog post from last year on when first freezes tend to happen across the state. #cowx

We hope you'll join us at the CSU Spur Campus in Denver on Oct 14 from 3-5pm! Our team will be talking about Colorado's climate and how it's changing. This event is free and open to the public, but be sure to register using the link below ⬇️

Happy New (Water) Year! 🥳 Today marks the first day of Water Year 2026. But what is a "water year" and why does it begin in October? Here's a short explainer! [1/7]

Only some of this precipitation was incorporated in this week's U.S. Drought Monitor (the weekly data cutoff is Tuesdays at 6am MDT). Nonetheless, we still saw some drought improvements throughout the state this week! 🌧️

Yesterday was the wettest day in quite some time for northeastern Colorado. Widespread observations of over 1" of rain, and over 2" in some spots on the Plains. Several inches of snow in the mountains too! Map from coagmet.colostate.edu #cowx

9/18 Drought Update 🌵: We saw more beneficial precipitation last week, which prompted widespread improvements in western and southern Colorado in this week's US Drought Monitor. Good news for now, but we'll need additional moisture to continue chipping away at those longer-term deficits.

August Recap ⏪: Hot, dry conditions intensified drought and fanned wildfires across western Colorado, but monsoon moisture finally delivered some much-needed precipitation at the end of the month. Just how significant was that rainfall? All that and more in our monthly climate summary! col.st/STpEm

Last week's sorely needed rain across western Colorado was enough to remove the D4 (exceptional) drought in the northwest. Still, though, 25% of the state is in D3 (extreme) drought, with very large precipitation deficits going back to the beginning of the year. #cowx climate.colostate.edu/drought/

“The biggest factor is the dry spring conditions and layered on top of them a much drier than normal summer,” said Peter Goble, assistant state climatologist. “We will be watching those base flows but also soil moisture levels as we go into fall and early winter to see if those pick back up.” #cowx

Monsoonal rains are dousing western Colorado wildfires. They also come with serious flood concerns.

Flash flooding possible today in Georgia and South Carolina. By Monday, chances for heavy rain increase for the southern Plains, and may linger into late in the week. Keep up with the forecast at weather.gov, and remember: Turn Around, Don't Drown when encountering flooded roadways.

Greetings from the Colorado Water Congress summer conference in beautiful (but dry) Steamboat Springs. We’re discussing our work with CoAgMET and especially the effort to improve soil moisture monitoring across Colorado!

Finally, a pattern change on the way for western Colorado! Model forecasts of precipitable water (total water vapor in the atmosphere) at Grand Junction show more hot and dry this week, but then some real moisture next wk. Too early to say how much rain or drought relief, but a welcome sight.🤞 #cowx

“Northwestern Colorado is the epicenter of drought in the whole country right now,” said Colorado’s state climatologist and the director of the Colorado Climate Center. “It’s about as bad as it gets.”

ICYMI: Parts of western Colorado are now experiencing exceptional drought. Curious how we got here and what we might expect in the coming weeks and months? Check out today's blog post ⬇️ col.st/j3EpX

Info for Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and Nevada 👇 "Dry thunderstorms will be the primary fire weather concern for today across the northeastern Great Basin, though warm, dry, and windy conditions will likely develop across parts of the Great Basin and northern Rockies." - NWS Forecast Discussion

The D4 (exceptional) category was added to this week's US Drought Monitor in northwest Colorado, amid a lack of spring and summer precipitation, fast-growing wildfires, and low streamflow. It's the first D4 in the state since January 2023, and the first D4 west of the divide since Oct 2021. #cowx

The Colorado Mesonet was recognized with the American Association of State Climatologists 30 Year Mesonet Award for contributing more than 30 years of quality weather records of Colorado. Way to go @climate.colostate.edu team! engr.source.colostate.edu/csu-colorado...

CoAgMET---the Colorado Agricultural Meteorological network, aka Colorado's Mesonet---was recently recognized for over 30 years of data collection. Read more about the award and the network in this story from CSU Source. Here's to 30 more years of valuable weather and climate information! #cowx

July seems like a long time ago, with everything happening with drought and wildfire in Colorado in the first part of August. But take a look back at how July conditions helped set the stage for the situation unfolding now, in our monthly state climate summary. #cowx

Thorough summary from Summit Daily of the worsening drought and wildfire situation on the western slope. #cowx

Latest update puts the Lee Fire at 58,714 acres, which puts it in the top 10 largest wildfires in Colorado records. It only started on Saturday (5 days ago). #cowx

This week's US Drought Monitor shows continued expansion of extreme drought in northwestern Colorado. Over 20% of the state is now in D3. Large fires continue to grow in drought-stricken areas, with the Lee Fire near Meeker now at 45,000 acres, with more hot, dry, and windy weather today. #cowx

Drought blankets most of Intermountain West, including Colorado — and will likely get worse (CPR News) #cowx #drought

Today's NIDIS Intermountain West Drought webinar (1pm MT) will have a Colorado flavor, including results from last year's urban heat mapping campaign in Grand Junction. More information and registration at this link: www.drought.gov/events/inter...

July rainfall had some huge variations across the Denver metro area. From downtown southward to Littleton, many stations with less than 0.25" for the month. But over 2.5" in parts of Aurora and Centennial. Thanks to all the CoCoRaHS observers for enabling such a detailed map! #cowx

Another view of the earlier tornado near Westcliffe! A rare 8,000’+ twister. Also the first tornado in Custer County since 2019, per @coloradoclimate.bsky.social 📸: Laura LeQuesne #COwx

Custer County is not a typical place for overlapping tornado and flash flood warnings! A tornado was observed southwest of Westcliffe this afternoon. The tornado warning has since expired, but the flash flood warning continues. It's the first tornado report in Custer County since 2019. #cowx

It's been the 'summer of flash floods' in the US, but there hasn't been much in Colorado so far. However, it's the last week in July, which is historically the peak in flash flooding across the state, and right on schedule, there will be a risk later this week. More in our latest blog post.👇 #cowx

New blog post on heat and humidity: no, even if you visited a humid place, you didn't experience 98°F and 98% humidity. That is not a thing that happens. But read on for some of the nuances of humidity measurements, and what they say about how humid it feels at different times and locations.

The Turner Gulch fire in western Colorado has grown to over 15,000 acres; it's the largest wildfire (by area) in the state since the record-breaking 2020 fire year. #cowx www.denverpost.com/2025/07/16/c...

This week's US Drought Monitor shows expansion of extreme drought (D3) in northwest Colorado. At Hayden, the last 90 days have been the driest such period on record, with only 1.18" of precip compared to an average of 4.93". NW CO could see heavy rainfall today to reduce the deficits a bit. #cowx

was not expecting to wake up and see reports of an early-morning swath of large hail along the Front Range (apologies to those who woke up to damage.) Big hail in the early am is *exceedingly* rare. Prior to today, only 7 reports in state records of 2"+ hail between the hours of 2-5am. #cowx

The June 6, 2020 derecho brought the most severe thunderstorm wind reports in a single day in Colorado records *by far*. So many that there is a spike on June 6 when calculating the climatology of severe winds for the state (bottom panel of graph). Five years ago today. #cowx

Heavy rain is possible across southern Colorado through Weds. Early June is typically dry in SW CO, so this storm could bring 1-2x the usual rainfall for all of June. It may not help much with the poor water supply situation, but will recharge soil moisture and hopefully reduce wildfire risk. #cowx