Issue Date: Thursday, September 9th, 2021
Issue Time: 9:00 AM MDT
Summary:
Things are feeling a bit like a broken record, reporting yet another hot, dry, and smoky day across Colorado. There was no precipitation reported yesterday, and therefore no flooding due to heavy rain. The main weather story continues to be the heat and poor air quality. Most of Northern, Western, and Central Colorado, including the Urban Corridor, remained under air quality alerts yesterday thanks to wildfire smoke and summer ozone pollution. For the second day in a row, Alamosa reached 87 degrees – this time tying their previous record high of 87 set in 1977.
The U.S. Drought Monitor update was released this morning, representative of conditions as of Tuesday, September 7, as seen in the map and table below. While there was little change from last week, the total area of “D0 Abnormally Dry” conditions has continued to expand across Eastern Colorado after the dry summer, and now includes the Denver Metro Area. In the western half of the state, drought conditions dominate, and the Northwest Slope is still experiencing “D4 Exceptional Drought”. However, compared to just 3 months ago, the percent of area of exceptional drought has decreased from 17.53% of the Colorado, to now just 3.91%, with the Southwest Slope showing the most improvement after a helpful summer monsoon season. A comparison slider between different weeks of Drought Monitor updates can be found here.
Click Here For Map Overview
