Dry today, but sunny days like this have been few and far between so far in May.
The Pueblo Airport has reported 10 days of measurable rain this month that adds up to over 4.5" of rainfall.
That's nearly three times the average for the entire month as a typical May brings in 1.57" of rainfall.
In spite of below average precipitation in March and April, the airport so far this year has seen 6.83" of water.
That number is more than halfway to our annual average total of 12.57", and it's not even June yet!
It's why our drought has been improving after the third driest year on record in 2020, a year that only produced 5.33" of liquid precipitation.
Although May hasn't been as wet for the Springs, we've still managed to collect 2.46" of rain this month, with measurable rain reported 11 of 24 days.
The Colorado Springs Airport has been much more consistent with precipitation this year than Pueblo has, with only April coming in below average.
Our running total so far this year is 6.02". It's a big improvement over last year, when at the same time we had only seen 2.67" of rain.
Last year's sub-par year came up just short of 10".
This year we're hoping for better, which brings me to the precipitation outlook for the upcoming summer.
July and August are climatologically the wettest months for Colorado Springs and Pueblo.
The latest outlook from the Climate Prediction Center, issued on May 20, favors a dry summer for Colorado.
There's a 40% probability of below average rainfall in these crucial summer months along the I-25 corridor.
These outlooks are useful in looking at overall trends relative to the norm.
However, they aren't forecasts and will not give us detailed information useful for planning daily activities.
For that, we'll have to wait and see how it all plays out.
