{"id":29943,"date":"2023-12-31T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-31T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/as-the-world-ends-the-hottest-year-recorded-scientists-say-its-getting-harder-to-predict-colorados-climate\/"},"modified":"2023-12-31T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-12-31T14:00:00","slug":"as-the-world-ends-the-hottest-year-recorded-scientists-say-its-getting-harder-to-predict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/as-the-world-ends-the-hottest-year-recorded-scientists-say-its-getting-harder-to-predict\/","title":{"rendered":"As the world ends the hottest year recorded, scientists say it\u2019s getting harder to predict Colorado\u2019s climate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The La Plata Mountains, seen here in May 2023 Southwest Colorado. Scientists say it\u2019s getting harder to predict Colorado\u2019s climate entering 2024. (Hannah Grover\/NM Political Report)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

From the wettest three-month period along the Front Range to the state\u2019s largest hailstone, 2023 was a year of climate extremes for Colorado \u2013 and the world.<\/p>\n

After three years of cool waters, the currents in the Pacific Ocean flipped to an El Nino cycle \u2013 an ocean climate pattern that can have a profound effect on landlocked, mountainous Colorado.<\/p>\n

Typically, a strong El Nino pattern increases the likelihood of increased snow across much of the state, said state climatologist Russ Schumacher. So far this winter, however, the state has received less snow than is typical for this time of year \u2013 a stark contrast to last winter, during which heavy snowfall and a wet spring refilled reservoirs and waterways, kicked off the growing season and tamped down on wildfires.<\/p>\n

Historically, both the El Nino warming pattern and the related cooling pattern known as La Nina mean more predictable weather patterns for Colorado. With global temperatures soaring \u2013 2023 was the world\u2019s warmest ever recorded \u2013 Schumacher that predictability might not hold true for 2024 and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe outlook for winter for Colorado is still up in the air a bit, even though we\u2019re now a few weeks into the official winter,\u201d he said. \u201cThe big question mark is how this El Nino event is going to play out \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

While it has become increasingly more difficult to predict seasonal climate patterns, Schumacher said extreme weather events \u2013 from hailstorms and tornadoes to wildfires \u2013 are becoming the new for Colorado.<\/p>\n

Extreme effects<\/div>\n

Colorado\u2019s wet winter and spring followed on the heels of drought conditions that had lingered across much of the state. Brad Erker, executive director of Colorado Wheat, said the wet weather was a welcome reprieve for many wheat growers across the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe timing of the rain is really important for us,\u201d he said. \u201cFor some producers it came too late, for some it came just in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although many wheat farmers in southeast Colorado were forced to abandon their crop this year, Erker said that the rain allowed many growers to bounce back after three consecutive years of historically low production.<\/p>\n

Although he is hopeful that this year of rain will help growers going into 2024, Erker says that wheat production is easily disrupted by extreme weather variability, which makes it difficult for growers to plan for the year ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

received less snow than is typical for this time of year, a stark contrast to last winter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,1030,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-environment","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29943"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=29943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}