Temperatures across the state yesterday were well below climatological average. Denver only got up to 80F (4F below normal), and Grand Junction only got up to 78F (8F below normal). Leadville, at 10,152 ft above sea level, barely got out of the 50Fs for a high. These cooler temperatures are a welcome relief to the record August heat we’ve been experiencing.<\/p>\n
Taking a look back at the full month of August, most of Colorado experienced below normal to record driest precipitation (left panel on image below). The western slope experienced the driest conditions with most of the area in record driest territory. Isolated<\/span> locations along the plains of eastern Colorado were actually able to get above normal precipitation for the month. This is due to some of the strong thunderstorms that dropped heavy rain over the plains during the first week and the last few days of the month, which was able to tap into more moisture from the east. However, with the record heat of August 2020 (right panel on image below), severe drought conditions were able to expand drastically across the state, as pointed out in the FTO last Thursday. This also made the 2020 wildfire season one of the more active in recent years, with the largest Colorado wildfire now in the record books (Pine Gulch Fire). Note that increased moisture along the eastern Colorado border likely allowed these locations to remain near normal in terms of temperature. The absence of a strong monsoon<\/span> kept moisture low and temperatures high in western Colorado. Grand Junction only received 0.07 inches of rain over two days at the end of August, which is 7% of their normal 0.95 inch monthly total.<\/p>\n
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