This time of the year can be exciting for Southern Colorado, with afternoon thunderstorms fueled by the moisture rich monsoon flow.
And this year...we need it more than ever after a relatively dry spring.
To give you an idea of where we stand today, let's look at the latest Drought Monitor.
The biggest change over the past week has been over southwestern Colorado.
Here we've managed to downgrade some areas of extreme drought to severe drought.
In Colorado's semi-arid climate, moisture from summer storms can also be helpful in keeping larger wildfires from burning out of control.
For the key summer months in Colorado Springs, more than eight inches of precipitation will fall on average.
That accounts for more than half of our annual total.
In Pueblo, it's typically a slower start to the rainy season as April and May on average are wetter than June.
Seasonal precipitation for Pueblo is lower in the summer than Colorado Springs, averaging 5.28".
If we look at last season, the Springs came in more than 2.5" below average while Pueblo saw above average rainfall.
Lastly, let's look at the Precipitation Outlook for the next three months.
Because La Nina is expected to continue through the end of 2022, overall trends are in favor of below average precipitation for the eastern Plains, the Front Range, and most of the Rockies.
This according to the latest information from the Climate Prediction Center.
Arizona and the Desert Southwest may see wetter than average conditions thanks to a potentially active summer monsoon season.
As for Southern Colorado, we'll just have to stay tuned to see how much rain we end up with this season.
