While the start of December has been dry, moisture during Thanksgiving week has still helped improve our drought conditions.
First, check out this map from November 26th. A bit over half the state is free of any drought. To be clear though, most zones that aren't are just abnormally dry. Only about ten percent of the state is truly classified as being in drought.
Let's compare it to this week's update. You can see improvement in El Paso County, Teller County, Douglas County, and the eastern plains. More than three quarters of our state is now drought-free, mainly due to Thanksgiving-time moisture. Over two million residents are still in at least minor drought - mostly in the Denver metro area.
But...importantly, Colorado Springs and Woodland Park are no longer considered abnormally dry. In fact, all of southern Colorado is currently drought-free!
Pretty easy on this map to see why. Our thirty-day average shows the deluge of November moisture has led to us generally being between two and three times wetter since this time last month compared to a normal year.
Pueblo saw its wettest November ever. Over two and a half inches of liquid hit the Steel City. Colorado Springs saw its fifth wettest November on record.
As we look ahead, the short-range picture is slightly wetter than usual, except for the extreme southern tier of the state.
In the mid-range, La Niña, a Pacific weather pattern that can affect our weather, is expected to develop this winter, but most data suggests it should be on the weak side. Our seasonal precipitation outlook suggests equal chances of above and below average moisture through the end of February.
I also crunched the numbers on the dry start we've had to December. It's fairly common. We don't get any measurable rain or snow in the first week of this month 45% of the time in Colorado Springs and 51% of the time in Pueblo. Only one out of every four to five years do we not get moisture by the middle of the month, and this doesn't look to be one of those years.
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