{"id":45429,"date":"2021-08-04T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/monsoon-quenches-short-term-drought-across-southwest-colorado\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:25:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:25:27","slug":"monsoon-quenches-short-term-drought-across-southwest-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/monsoon-quenches-short-term-drought-across-southwest-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Monsoon quenches short-term drought across Southwest Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Wildflowers
Wildflowers bloom Monday around Animas Forks ghost town in the San Juan Mountains. Good monsoonal rains that began a week early in Southwest Colorado, in late June, have allowed the U.S. Drought Monitor to drop the short-term drought status for the area. However, the region remains in a long-term drought. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A strong monsoon has lowered the short-term drought designation for Southwest Colorado, but the region remains stuck in a long-term drought.<\/p>\n

The top half of La Plata County and the northeast corner of Montezuma County have improved from severe drought, listed as D-2, to moderate drought, or D-1, according to the latest map from the U.S. Drought Monitor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"The
The short-term drought situation has improved in Southwest Colorado. The image on the left is from July 20 and the image on the right is from July 27. (Courtesy of the U.S. Drought Monitor)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The bulk of both counties, however, remain in extreme drought, D-3, with the southwest corner of Montezuma County still listed in exceptional drought, D-4, which is the most severe drought status given by the U.S. Drought Monitor.<\/p>\n

Brad Rippey, a U.S. Department of Agriculture meteorologist with the U.S. Drought Monitor, said, \u201cWhat we see right now in southwestern Colorado is that we\u2019re seeing these longer-term indicators, still pointing to the D-2s and D-3s, even a couple of D-4s. Whereas your short-term indicators, if you just look at the last 30 days, we\u2019re actually on the wet side of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The monsoon has allowed the U.S. Drought Monitor to drop the short-term drought status for Southwest Colorado, but the region remains listed in a long-term drought, Rippey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to kind of balance the long- and the short-term,\u201d Rippey said.<\/p>\n

\"A
A variety of wildflowers blooms Monday in the San Juan Mountains. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When new maps are issued by the Drought Monitor, Rippey said, several factors are examined including precipitation measurements, soil moisture, stream flows and vegetation health, among dozens of other factors.<\/p>\n

The data is also examined against historical patterns to determine drought status, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we like to see is a convergence of evidence,\u201d he said. \u201cIn a perfect world, everything would point to the same drought intensity. Of course, in real life, it\u2019s never that easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A dandelion glows in the sun Monday in the San Juan Mountains north of Silverton. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Rippey said it would take a couple of good seasons, including above-average snowpack this winter and another good monsoon season next year \u201cto put a dent in the longer-term drought.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere still are some very serious long-term issues,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you start looking at reservoirs, groundwater, even some of the stream flow hasn\u2019t fully bounced back, you\u2019ll see the region still has long-term issues, and it\u2019s not going to go away with one robust monsoon season.\u201d<\/p>\n

National Weather Service meteorologist Erin Walter said beginning Wednesday, Southwest Colorado will be in a drying trend through the remainder of the week into early next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cConditions will dry out. It looks like Thursday might be the driest part of the week,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A high-pressure system is building over Nevada and western Utah, and that will prevent the southerly winds that have been bringing monsoonal rains.<\/p>\n

Still, a slight chance of rain will remain this week, principally in higher elevations, Walter said.<\/p>\n

\"Insects
Insects take advantage of various types of wildflowers blooming Monday in the San Juan Mountains thanks to this summer\u2019s monsoon. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The high-pressure system blocking the monsoonal pattern is expected to break down early next week, possibly on Tuesday. Walter said that should allow for the resumption of southerly winds and a return to monsoonal conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be drying out a bit, but it doesn\u2019t mean the monsoons are ending,\u201d she said. \u201cNext week, it\u2019s looking like a good chance the monsoons will return, so this looks more like a break rather than an end to the monsoons.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the monsoon season remains robust, rains could be in the forecast through early September.<\/p>\n

\"While
While taking in the wildflowers in the San Juan Mountains north of Silverton, don\u2019t forget to look for wildlife. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Rippey said autumn is usually a period where precipitation drops before snows begin in November.<\/p>\n

After the monsoon, the U.S. Drought Monitor will begin examining snowpack, with a base usually forming in November in Southwest Colorado\u2019s mountains.<\/p>\n

The snowpack will be key in allowing the U.S. Drought Monitor to upgrade long-term drought conditions through winter.<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

take a couple of good seasons, including above-average snowpack, to improve long-term situation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[402,28,88],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-drought","tag-headlines","tag-weather-news"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45429","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=45429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86492,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45429\/revisions\/86492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45429"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}