{"id":23291,"date":"2025-03-04T17:13:05","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T00:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/drought-remains-moderate-through-february-in-cortez\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:33:08","slug":"drought-remains-moderate-through-february-in-cortez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/drought-remains-moderate-through-february-in-cortez\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought remains moderate through February in Cortez"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Driving
Driving toward Mancos at sunset on Colorado Highway 184 on Feb. 24. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The numbers are in, and Cortez is above its average precipitation for the month of February.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s sort of a \u201cteaser,\u201d said Jim Andrus, a National Weather Service weather watcher in Cortez.<\/p>\n

\u201cFebruary looked above normal, but all of that fell in two days,\u201d Andrus said. \u201cThe rest of the month was bone dry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Water equivalent for the month \u2013 1.19 inches \u2013 is 124% of the 0.96 inches we normally see.<\/p>\n

But a storm over Valentine\u2019s Day weekend brought in most of that.<\/p>\n

In terms of snowfall, 6 of the 6.1 inches of snow the city received all month fell in that two-day storm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish the weather would stop teasing and be more consistent in its gift of precipitation,\u201d said Andrus.<\/p>\n

That 6.1 inches of total snow for the month is 85% of the 7.2 inches that Cortez usually gets in February, and brings this season\u2019s total snowfall to 10.8 inches.<\/p>\n

Cortez typically has received 25.4 inches of snow by now, more than double the current total for the season.<\/p>\n

And though the city surpassed water equivalence totals for the month, it\u2019s behind as far as year-to-date totals go.<\/p>\n