Summit County Citizens Voice

The blue and purple areas show where where snow and rainfall were up to 200 percent of normal during April, according to the Intermountain West climate summary from the Western Water Assessment.

Climate summary released by the Western Water Assessment; April rain and snow was “too little, too late”

SUMMIT COUNTY — The high country can look forward to a quiet weather week with gradually warming temperatures leading up to some of the warmest days of the year so far by the end of the week.

With not much exciting weather to report, we’ll jump straight into the April climate summary for the Intermountain West, issued today by the Western Water Assessment project.

The maps with the report show a distinct shift in the storm pattern, with parts of northern Colorado, southern Wyoming and northern Utah receiving up to 200 percent of average precipitation for the month. Some of the wettest areas were from Cheyenne down along the northern Front Range, as well as southwestern Wyoming and the mountain west of Salt Lake City. Cheyenne set a daily rainfall record, with 1.24 inches on April 24, breaking the old record of 1.13 inches set way back in 1905.

More stats, and the local forecast, after the break …

But the report still characterized the late rain and snow as “too little, too late,” and is still forecast below-average streamflows and runoff for nearly every basin in the region.

Temperatures across the region were near average, with only a few spots setting record highs or lows.

Here’s the snowpack summary from the report:

“In Colorado, warming temperatures in late April triggered widespread snowmelt. May 1 snowpacks range from a low of 71% of average in the Colorado River basin to a high of 90% of average in the Rio Grande basin. However, April storms did bring above-average snowfall across northern basins, increasing Yampa and White River basins snowpack to 83% of average, the highest percentage all winter.

In Utah, May 1 snowpacks in northern basins range from 60–80% of average, while southern basins range from 100–160% of average. Large storms in the first week of April in northern basins contributed one-third of the total winter snowfall, but only partially alleviated the extreme below-average streamflow forecasts for these basins.

In Wyoming, May 1 snowpacks are 76% of average statewide. April precipitation varied across the state, but was mainly below average, ranging from a low of 39% of average in the Green River basin to a high of 135% of average in the Belle Fourche and Cheyenne River basins. Snowpacks range from 50–70% of average in northern, central and western basins, and are highest in the eastern basins, ranging from 90–109% of average.”

The three-month temperature and precipitation outlook for the area is calling for a chance of above-average readings mainly focused in southwest Colorado, with near-normal temperatures and precipitation for the north-central mountains.

Local forecast
For this week, that means high 50s today and tomorrow in Frisco, low to mid-60s middle of the week and up into the high 60s by next weekend, according to the Weather Underground forecast for Frisco.

The Weather Channel forecast is calling for slightly higher temps today, up to 63 degrees, which would be right on par with the average of the day. The record high for June 1 is 81 degrees, set in the blistering drought year of 2002, when hot and dry conditions in June led up to the worst wildfire ever in Colorado. The record high for June is 87 degrees, set in 1944.

Filed under: Summit County Colorado, Summit County snow and weather Tagged: | Colorado weather, Summit County Colorado, Summit County News, Summit County snow and weather