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001919 1998 Water Year 1998 Water Year DeserlotiOD. All eyes were on the mid June. July was wet and stormy with numerQiIs heavy skies as an "El Nino" ftjmzy grasped the whole country. downpours. Storms diminished in area and intelisity in The weather cooperate(fby delivering a terrible blizzard to August and September. The 1998 growing seasdn was Colorado October 24-26. - very possibly the worst October drier than average in many areas, but much of eljStern blizzard in Colorado's recorded history, and the first Colorado ended up with more rainfa1l than usuaL storm to totally paralyze the Denver International Airport co LOR A 0 0 since it opened. More heavy snows hit southern Colo- rado, but the remainder of the winter was unspectacular elsewhere. 'The summer was hot with variable precipita- tion. Temperatures statewide ended up above average for the 1998 water year while precipitation was below average over partS of the northeast and much of western Colorado. Southeastern Colorado was the exception with widespread' much above average conditions for the year. .. Temneratures. The water year got off to a chilly start October.December 1997, especially over southern Colo- rado. January and February were very mild, however, and eastern Colorado was spared subzero temperatures for one of the very few times in history. March temperatures returned to near average, and April was cooler than normal. The growing season got off to a slow. start with some morning frostS in May and a cool June. Then the heat set in. July through September were significantly warmer than average. A severe heat wave July 18-21 sent temperatures soaring past the loooF mark, and contrib- uted to local power outages. 10 - LL:' 8> t 6. j; i" " l 2- i o. ! -2- 1998 WATER YEAR ..- Oct New. Dee ....n : Feb Mar Apr Mav Jun Jul Aug Sep 1___ Weltemv.e.,. --- EHtentPllllne -+- FoolNllI ~- Precloitation. October precipitation was above average over most of Colorado. The big blizzard brought as much as 3 inches of liqnid to eastern Colorado. November and December were drier than average in the mountains, but heavy snows fell each month over portions of southern and southeastern Colorado. January brought decent snowfull to the northern mountains but left eastern Colo- rado with almost nothing. . February, March and April all had complex precipitationpattems with portions of the state wet while other areas were very dry. For the Octo- ber-April winter season, precipitation totals were near to below average over westem, central and northeast Colo- rado, while southeast Colorado experienced one of their wettest winters on record. May and June were unseasona- bly dry except for heavy rains over northwest Colorado in Oct 97 - Apr 98 (Wintei) precip percent of average. I ."" COLORADO , I :~ , i 1 ,~ "~ , '1 ; '-'; 4 ,-'t j < 1 : ,-;\ May - Sept 98 (Sununer) poop percent of average. COLORADO 1998 Water Year precip as a percent of average. 74 c, ,"<_