The local precipitation totals for 2015 are above normal thanks to steady rain, especially in May.
Local meteorologist Jim Andrus reported that so far this year, southwest Colorado has received 6.52 inches of rain, with 2.41 inches falling this month alone.
“That puts us at 141 percent of normal for the year,” he said.
In May 2.41 inches have fallen so far, he said, and the 30-year average is .83 inches.
“May has been extraordinary, and is almost three times the norm for precipitation,” Andrus said. “It is the wettest May since at least 1998 when I began keeping records.”
The moisture has produced significant snow above 10,000 feet in the La Plata and San Juan Mountains. The additional moisture has bumped up low snowpack levels in the region as well.
According to the Natural Resource Conservation Service, combined snowpack levels for the Dolores, Animas, San Miguel, and San Juan river basins is at 86 percent of normal, up from 61 percent of normal in February.
The recent rainy trend is because of a low-pressure ridge that guided in moisture from the Pacific, Andrus said.
“It replaced a high-pressure ridge that we had all winter, blocking the storms and giving us a dry winter,” he said.
The local forecast shows sunny weather for the next six days as a high-pressure ridge begins to form, pushing storms to the north.
Durango also has wet May
Durango has experienced its wettest May in at least 16 years, and more rain may be on the way.
By Tuesday, 2.9 inches of precipitation had fallen at Durango-La Plata County Airport. Records at that location date to 2000. The second-wettest May came in 2011, when 1.29 inches fell.
Last year saw only 0.68 inches of May precipitation.
“It’s actually going to be a wet week as well,” said Megan Stackhouse, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Grand Junction.
She added: “We’re expecting scattered showers popping up in the late evening hours” before a break late Saturday and early Sunday.
A wet system from the Pacific Northwest is on its way to Southwest Colorado, Stackhouse said. “It’s just digging down into our area. ... Pretty much it’s going to be a wet rest of the month, unfortunately for some people.”
A high-pressure system bringing warmer temperatures is on track to arrive Sunday, she said.
All of the moisture is gradually improving drought conditions throughout the Mountain West. Most of La Plata County is in “moderate drought,” the second-least severe rating, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. A sliver of the county near the New Mexico border remains in “severe drought.”