In true Colorado fashion, 2020 brought us a little bit of everything weather wise from a snowy February to a destructive hail storm in early August.
But perhaps, the biggest story from this past year was how warm and dry it was compared to the norm.
In comparing records that date back to 1872, the Colorado Springs Airport just recorded its 5th warmest year on record with an average temperature of 51.9 degrees.
This accounts for each days high and low for the entire year.
While 2020 will go down as one of the warmest on record, we can also see that it will go down as one of the driest too.
With under 10" of recorded precipitation this past year, we came up well short of the average of 16.54".
Interestingly enough, we were quite snowy this past year compared to normal, thanks to a robust February, March and April that produced over 30" of snow. This came out to 72% of the yearly total.
Pueblo's numbers tell a similar story, with 2020 going down as a very warm and dry year.
Pueblo's average highs was 2.6 degrees above the norm, making it the 9th warmest on record.
The drought worsened significantly last year in Pueblo thanks to only 5.33" of precipitation for the year. It's now considered the 3rd driest ever reported.
Snowfall was also below average this past year in Pueblo, coming in just under 29".
Looking ahead, it's too soon to tell what 2021 will bring. However, with La Nina conditions expected to persist through the winter, it's likely that the drought will worsen before things get better.
