COLORADO — If you're feeling like we've had a lot of snow days this month…you're right. One out of three days this month so far have had measurable snow in Colorado Springs and Pueblo.
But all of those storms put together have given both cities around a half inch of actual water. And for context that's actually more than double how much rain and snow we normally get in both cities by this point in the month. That's because cold air is dry air.
Think of air like a sponge. Temperature controls the size of the sponge. Warm air makes the sponge bigger, and cold air makes it smaller. With temperatures in the teens, the air can't hold much water at all. That's part of why your skin and lips crack during winter all the time.
The main place this comes into play is in something called our rain to snow ratio. When it's cold, not only does the air tend to be dry…our snow tends to be dry, too. This means we get more snow for the same amount of moisture. For example, we might need nearly two feet of snow, just to get an inch of rain!
To show you how this works - in January - we average two and a half days of rain or snow in Colorado Springs, and we get about a tenth of an inch of actual water each time. In March, we get five days of rain or snow, and each storm is about 30 percent wetter. In July…we get over ten days of rain, and each storm gives us three times what a typical January storm does!
We get much wetter snowstorms during spring and fall. Wetter, warmer air makes for more notable events. March is our snowiest month of the year, and the snow is typically wetter too, so we get more water out of it.
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How 100+ alligators thrive in Colorado during sub-zero temps
Many Colorado natives have heard of Colorado Gators Reptile Park, a wildlife sanctuary that is home to more than 100 alligators.
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