{"id":132659,"date":"2026-06-10T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pretty-abysmal-dry-may-gives-way-to-hot-southwest-colorado-summer\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T01:30:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T07:30:55","slug":"pretty-abysmal-dry-may-gives-way-to-hot-southwest-colorado-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pretty-abysmal-dry-may-gives-way-to-hot-southwest-colorado-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Pretty abysmal\u2019: dry May gives way to hot Southwest Colorado summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Southwest
Southwest Colorado is under multiple red flag warnings this week after the effects of low May precipitation trickle into June. However, the potential for an El Ni\u00f1o year could bring much needed water to the region. (AP file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Cortez saw 8% of its normal precipitation in May, setting the stage for extreme fire conditions in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cA horrendous dearth of precipitation for May rendered all 31 May days into one long May Daze monthlong episode instead,\u201d Jim Andrus, local weather spotter, wrote in his monthly report. \u201cThe result is a continuing pattern of severe to extreme drought over Montezuma County and even worse drought elsewhere in Western Colorado and in other states as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

National Weather Service forecaster Lucas Boyer concurred, calling May precipitation \u201cpretty abysmal.\u201d Andrus noted that the snowfall water equivalent in the Dolores Basin dwindled to 3% of normal.<\/p>\n

High winds, hot weather and low humidity kicked off the second week of June. The conditions spurred red flag warnings for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Southwest Colorado, threatening extreme fire conditions. The NWS released a Fire Weather Watch for Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going through an extended period of low relative humidity and gusty afternoon winds which are coupled with critically receptive fuels that\u2019s leading to red flag conditions multiple days in a row,\u201d Boyer said.<\/p>\n

While conditions ease Thursday evening, Southwest Colorado should not anticipate a particularly long reprieve.<\/p>\n

\u201cFire weather is here to stay for the Four Corners,\u201d Boyer said, noting projected highs in the 90s this weekend. \u201cIt\u2019s a June pattern that\u2019s hard to shake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrus, in his analysis, noted that the likelihood of an El Ni\u00f1o event this year might alleviate some of Southwest Colorado\u2019s water stresses. The climate pattern typically brings higher precipitation to southern areas of the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cLong term climatology says that at some point this summer the monsoons will start rolling in and we\u2019ll get some showers,\u201d Boyer said, clarifying that these predictions account for large scale weather changes and do not guarantee local ones. \u201cWe can\u2019t attach any positive or negative thing to Southwest Colorado with El Ni\u00f1o.\u201d<\/p>\n

The near-term predictions, Boyer added, point to hot and dry weather with some moisture arriving farther out in the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith our seasonal, summer outlook, it\u2019s definitely greater chances that we\u2019re going to be above normal warmth with some indication of the monsoons working in here over the summer,\u201d Boyer said.<\/p>\n

avanderveen@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lack of rain and high winds threaten dangerous fire conditions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":132660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[28,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-132659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135258,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132659\/revisions\/135258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132659"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=132659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}