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Drought Information Statement
Issued by NWS Denver/Boulder, CO
Issued by NWS Denver/Boulder, CO
623 AXUS75 KBOU 132041 DGTBOU COC001-005-013-014-019-031-035-039-047-049-057-059-069-073-075-087- 093-095-115-117-121-123-130000 Drought Information Statement National Weather Service Denver CO 225 PM MDT Thu May 13 2021 ...DROUGHT HAS CEASED IN THE SOUTH PLATTE RIVER BASIN EAST OF THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE FROM DENVER NORTHWARD... Wet conditions continued across much of northeast and north central Colorado with 150 to 250 percent of normal precipitation common in the Front Range Foothills, urban corridor, northeast and east central plains the past two weeks. Mountain precipitation has been near to above normal in the South Platte basin, near to below normal in the headwaters of the Colorado River just west of the divide, and below to much below normal in the North Platte basin in Jackson County. The calendar year-to-date precipitation has a very similar precipitation pattern. .LOCAL AREAS AFFECTED... More rounds of precipitation brought one to two category drought improvements on the U.S. Drought Monitor the past two weeks. Drought and Abnormally Dry conditions /D0/ have been removed entirely in much of the South Platte basin in north central and northeast Colorado. The exception is the extreme northeast corner of Colorado where Moderate Drought /D1/ persists. Severe Drought /D2/ was replaced by Moderate Drought /D1/ from South Park eastward into the east central plains. Drought conditions improved a bit in the North Platte basin in eastern Jackson, and just over of the divide in Summit and eastern Grand Counties. AGRICULTURAL IMPACTS... From the USDA Colorado Crop Progress Report for the week ending May 9th: Isolated to heavy moisture was received in some areas last week...Several northeastern counties received moisture and experienced cool temperatures last week...Received moisture greatly benefitted non-irrigated crop and pasture conditions. East central counties also received moisture several days last week, boosting soil moisture supplies and improving native pasture condition. Topsoil moisture slowly improved to 29 and 14 percent short to very short across the state, respectively. WATER SUPPLY... South Platte basin mountain snowpack continued to hold fairly steady, but elsewhere snowpack slowly declined. May 13th snowpack was 114 percent of normal in the South Platte basin, 90 percent of normal in the Colorado River headwaters, but only 78 percent of normal in the North Platte basin in Colorado. Sub-basin snowpack east of the divide was 106 percent of normal in the Cache La Poudre River watershed, the Big Thompson River was at 103 percent, Boulder Creek at 158 percent, Clear Creek was 96 percent, and the Laramie River was 112 percent of normal. West of the divide the Blue River was 97 percent of normal, Muddy Creek at 102 percent, Troublesome Creek at 91 percent, but Williams Fork was only 55 percent of normal. End of April combined reservoir storage remained in good shape at 101 and 96 percent of average, respectively in the South Platte and Colorado River basins. Nearly all U.S. Geological Survey stream gages in the South Platte basin had above to much above normal flows on May 13th, whereas the majority in the North Platte and Colorado River basins were below to much below normal. CLIMATE SUMMARY... Temperatures the past two weeks have been near normal. Preliminary NWS Cooperative Observer and airport 2 week precipitation table for April 29th through May 12th: Location County 2021 Normal Departure % Normal -------- ------ ----- ------ --------- -------- Above 8000 feet Antero Reservoir Park 0.48 0.51 -0.03 94 Dillon Summit 0.52 0.62 -0.10 84 Georgetown 4S Clear Ck 1.80 1.05 +0.75 171 Georgetown Clear Ck 1.16 1.05 +0.11 110 Grand Lake 6SSW Grand 1.19 0.68 +0.51 175 Grant Park 0.86 0.77 +0.09 112 Lake George 8SW Park 0.65 0.52 +0.13 125 Walden Jackson 0.45 0.63 -0.18 71 Winter Park Grand 1.33 1.26 +0.07 106 6000 to 8000 feet Bailey Park 1.97 0.96 +1.01 205 Cheesman Reservoir Douglas 1.65 0.74 +0.91 223 Evergreen Jefferson 2.07 1.15 +0.92 180 Roxborough Park Douglas 3.27 1.35 +1.92 242 Rustic 9WSW Larimer 1.01 0.79 +0.22 128 Virginia Dale 7ENE Larimer 2.28 1.25 +1.03 182 Williams Fork Rsvr Grand 1.42 0.69 +0.73 206 Front Range Urban Corridor Boulder Boulder 2.72 1.51 +1.21 180 Centennial Airport Arapahoe 2.20 1.01 +1.19 218 Denver Intl Airport Denver 1.39 0.96 +0.43 145 Denver downtown Denver 2.51 1.29 +1.22 195 Fort Collins Larimer 3.23 1.23 +2.00 263 Longmont Boulder 1.84 0.88 +0.96 209 Loveland Larimer 2.94 1.19 +1.75 247 Northglenn Adams 2.33 1.12 +1.21 208 Wheat Ridge Jefferson 2.73 1.22 +1.51 224 Colorado Plains Akron 4E Washington 1.54 1.06 +0.48 145 Briggsdale Weld 1.19 0.81 +0.38 147 Holyoke Phillips 0.98 1.10 -0.12 89 Leroy 5WSW Logan 1.64 1.10 +0.54 149 Limon Lincoln 1.87 0.89 +0.98 210 Lindon 5WNW Washington 1.35 0.93 +0.42 145 Sedgwick 5S Sedgwick 1.15 1.15 0.00 100 Preliminary NWS Cooperative Observer and airport precipitation totals for the calendar year so far (January 1st through May 12th): Location Elevation 2021 Normal Departure % Normal -------- --------- ----- ------ --------- -------- Above 8000 feet Antero Reservoir 8939 2.12 2.30 -0.18 92 Dillon 9065 4.07 5.03 -0.96 81 Georgetown 4S 10020 9.48 7.92 +1.56 120 Georgetown 8520 6.30 6.31 -0.01 100 Grand Lake 6SSW 8288 4.31 4.18 +0.13 103 Walden 8056 2.26 3.62 -1.36 62 Winter Park 9095 10.94 11.34 -0.40 96 6000 to 8000 feet Bailey 7752 8.00 5.34 +2.66 150 Cheesman Reservoir 6880 5.96 4.42 +1.54 135 Evergreen 6985 8.43 6.60 +1.83 128 Rustic 9WSW 7697 6.73 4.07 +2.66 165 Virginia Dale 7ENE 7015 7.88 5.48 +2.40 144 Williams Fork Rsvr 7618 5.75 4.97 +0.78 116 Front Range Urban Corridor Boulder 5484 10.59 8.14 +2.45 130 Centennial Airport 5883 6.95 4.66 +2.29 149 Denver Intl Airport 5284 8.23 4.14 +4.09 199 Denver downtown 5228 8.54 5.25 +3.29 163 Fort Collins 5004 9.15 5.34 +3.81 171 Longmont 4950 8.95 5.07 +3.88 177 Loveland 5080 10.16 5.61 +4.55 181 Northglenn 5407 8.74 5.09 +3.65 172 Wheat Ridge 5398 8.72 6.25 +2.47 140 Colorado Plains Akron 4E 4542 7.97 4.06 +3.91 196 Briggsdale 4862 5.25 3.31 +1.94 159 Holyoke 3780 7.75 4.55 +3.20 170 Leroy 5WSW 4467 7.94 4.41 +3.53 180 Limon 5374 5.18 3.57 +1.61 145 Lindon 5WNW 4851 7.02 3.81 +3.21 184 Sedgwick 5S 3996 5.97 4.72 +1.25 126 OUTLOOKS... The outlooks for May call for higher chances of above normal temperatures, and near to above normal precipitation. While La Nina is present, there is an 80 percent chance of a transition from La Nina to ENSO-Neutral conditions late this spring into early summer. RELATED WEB SITES... Additional information on current drought conditions may be found at the following addresses: Local weather...climate and water information: www.weather.gov/bou U.S. Drought Monitor: droughtmonitor.unl.edu NWS Climate Prediction Center Outlooks: www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov Colorado Climate Center Drought Information and Resources: https://climate.colostate.edu/drought_info.html USDA Crop Progress and Condition Reports: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Colorado/Publications /Crop_Progress_&_Condition CWCB Water Availability Task Force Presentations: cwcb.state.co.us/public-information/flood-water-availability-task- forces/ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS... The U.S. Drought Monitor is a multi-agency effort involving NOAA`s National Weather Service, State and Regional Climate Centers, Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Drought Mitigation Center. Information for this statement has been gathered from NWS and FAA observation sites, Cooperative Network stations, the Natural Resources Conservation Service SNOTEL Network, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Army Corp of Engineers stream and reservoir gages. CONTACT INFORMATION... If you have questions or comments about this Drought Information Statement, please contact: National Weather Service Forecast Office 325 Broadway Boulder, CO 80305 w-bou.webmaster@noaa.gov $$ tlh
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