Since I’ve been asked, and it is time for an update, here’s the latest news and data about our weather.
Our spring, which includes March, April and May, just ended. This is locally referred to as “mud season” (or time to head for the beaches, Utah or wherever else). Again, let me remind you that “long term” in this report refers to the period from 1900 to 2025.
The high temperatures (TMax) for this spring averaged 57.66 degrees, compared to the long- term average of 54.8 degrees. This was largely because March’s TMax was 5.8 degrees warmer than average. Low temperatures (TMin) averaged 23.46 degrees, compared to the long-term average of 21 degrees.
The average temperature for this spring was 40.56 degrees, compared to the long-term 37.8 degrees. So overall, we had a warm spring, and we deserved it after that brutal January we had this year. The lowest temperature we had all spring (not all winter) was 8 degrees on March 19. That’s not so bad. I can remember an official 27 below zero on March 5, 1966. The last time it froze this spring (so far!) was May 22, according to the official weather station west of Gunnison, and May 27 at the West Ruby station in town. Overnight lows in town are now in the 40s, but, gardeners beware, it’s not uncommon to have a frost after June 15, at least historically — maybe this year will be different?
Precipitation (including the moisture in snow) amounted to a sum of 1.04 inches for all three months of spring compared to the long-term average of 0.7 inches, but that doesn’t begin to make up for the lousy winter we had.
Snowfall for all the spring months amounted to a total of 5.3 inches, compared to the long-term 11 inches. Basically, we had only one real snow storm all season, and that was in late November. As you know, things are not looking good for our runoff, and even though we’ve had some rain in early June, (about 0.65 inches — the amount we normally get for the entire month), we’re still in a drought.
(Bruce Bartleson is a retired emeritus professor of geology at Western Colorado University. He spends most of his time now watching the weather.)
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