El Niño turned out to be mostly a dud for the month of March in Durango, but climatologists say the next three months are expected to be wetter than average.
As of Wednesday, the Durango-La Plata County Airport received 0.17 of an inch of moisture for the month. The average is 1.25 inches in March, said Julie Malingowski, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.
“So it’s very, very, very dry this month,” she said.
The dry spell is expected to extend another 10 days, in which skies will be clear and temperatures will reach the low 60s. Starting April 8 to April 10, you will want to have your umbrella handy. Southwest Colorado is favored to be in the path of a persistent storm track out of the southwest that will bring above-average temperatures and moisture to the region, Malingowski said. The wetter-than-average pattern is expected to last at least three months, she said. The average rainfall in April for the Durango area is 1.1 inches.
“Despite the dry month of March, we are expecting the weather to become much more active in the month of April,” Malingowski said. “By April 10, the Durango area should be seeing the first of these storms from the southwest.”
shane@durangoherald.com
