{"id":45939,"date":"2021-06-30T21:23:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T03:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/monsoonal-rain-brings-a-shot-of-relief-but-it-might-not-last-long\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:28:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:28:22","slug":"monsoonal-rain-brings-a-shot-of-relief-but-it-might-not-last-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/monsoonal-rain-brings-a-shot-of-relief-but-it-might-not-last-long\/","title":{"rendered":"Monsoonal rain brings a shot of relief, but it might not last long"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Recent
Recent rains in Cortez have put the month precipitation average above normal. (Journal file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Cortez heated up to record high temperatures in June, then a week\u2019s worth of refreshing rains provided much needed moisture.<\/p>\n

The rains of late June were first of the year linked to the seasonal monsoonal pattern, said Jim Andrus.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot a drought-buster to be sure, but it provided some small relief from the drought,\u201d he said last week.<\/p>\n

Cortez saw .52 inches of rain in June, which is 130% of normal. Year-to-date, Cortez is at 4.12 inches of rain, which is 82% of normal.<\/p>\n

Curb your enthusiasm for a sustained monsoonal weather pattern, weather officials said.<\/p>\n

While the 30-day precipitation outlooks looks more promising, the 90-day outlook still looks pessimistic for precipitation, Andrus said.<\/p>\n

This week is expected to be dry with highs in the mid to upper 90s, and temperatures will continue to run 5-10 degrees above normal across the area, according to the National Weather Service foercast anaylsis for the Four Corners.<\/p>\n

Lower valleys may break the 100 degree mark.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe center of the area of high pressure is forecast to remain over the Four Corners region,\u201d according to the analysis. \u201cAs a result, expect a warming trend through the end of the week as temperatures climb back into the triple digits for portions of southeast Utah and west-central Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Stearns, National Weather Service meteorologist, said the forecast for a consistent monsoonal rainfall pattern in the Four Corners is less than ideal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not setting up super-favorable at this point, but that could change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Recent rains are tied to tropical storms Dolores and Enrique in Mexico, Stearns said, which have injected moisture into the atmosphere in the Four Corners that has circulated and lingered.<\/p>\n

Long term, he said a high-pressure system is expected to move back over the area, pushing the traditional monsoon pattern to the west into eastern Nevada and western Utah.<\/p>\n

Monsoonal rain patterns occur July through September when moisture is drawn up from the Gulf of Mexico into the Southwest.<\/p>\n

It missed Montezuma and La Plata counties in 2020 and 2019, worsening drought conditions, leaving behind abnormally dry soils, and increasing wildfire risk.<\/p>\n

Cortez suffered through a heat wave earlier in June, with 100-degree temperatures on four consecutive days, Andrus said.<\/p>\n

Eight new daily high temperature records were set. One was tied.<\/p>\n

The high of 94 degrees on June 5 beat the previous daily record of 92 degrees set in 2020.<\/p>\n

Then new records were set or tied on seven consecutive days, June 13 to June 19. They are:<\/p>\n

95 degrees on June 13 tied the old record of 95 degrees set in 2018.<\/div>\n
97 degrees on June 14 beat the old record of 96 degrees set in 2018.<\/div>\n
97 degrees on June 15 beat the old record of 93 degrees set in 1974.<\/div>\n
102 degrees on June 16 beat the old record of 96 degrees set in 2007.<\/div>\n
102 degrees on June 17 beat the old record of 95 degrees set in 2007.<\/div>\n
100 degrees on June 18 beat the old record of 95 degrees set in 2017.<\/div>\n
100 degrees on June 19 beat the old record of 98 degrees set in 1936.<\/div>\n

The all-time record of 102 degrees was set on July 15, 2003, then tied six times: on July 21, 2005; June 27, 2013; June 28, 2013; July 7, 2017; June 16, 2021; and June 17, 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

record-breaking heat; then rain put month above average for precipitation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29,1623,414],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-rain","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45939","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=45939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86684,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45939\/revisions\/86684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45939"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}