Current drought conditions and 6-10 outlook

04/07/25 8am: Morning, its Monday. Not much weather expected over the next 7-8 days except for some wind on Tue and Wed. So its worth looking at the current drought conditions and the precip/temp outlook for NOAA.

In terms of drought (image 3 below) we do have drought starting to creep back into parts of the state. Currently at least 55% of the state has at least some D0 (abnormally dry) conditions, compared to 29% last year at the same time. D2-D4 (Severe Drought) is at 12.60% compared to 0.00% last year. Driest conditions are showing up in parts of the San Juans / southwest CO.

The outlook for the next 6-10 days / 8-14 days and 3 months (rest of spring) calls for warmer than average temps with below average precip (of course 1 big storm could change this) but overall we will be leaning towards the warmer and drier side of the pattern (as will be the case this week).

In terms of immediate weather it will be turning windy tomorrow between 10am-10pm: In the mountains westerly wind-gusts of 40-60 mph, strongest over the Front Range mountains (near/east of the Cont. Divide). For the Den/Bou, front-range urban corridor and parts of the eastern plains wind-gusts of 20-40mph on Tue .

It will remain windy over the Front Range mountains on Wed (with continued wind-gusts of 30-60 mph over the higher terrain).

Looking ahead, the Sun/Mon storm looks weak and likely will track north of CO (some wind and snow showers coming back to the mountains by Sun night but not much).

Then maybe a southern track storm system around Tue/Wed (04/15-04/16) but that is a ways out, so who knows.

In the meantime going to be turning very warm for Tue, Fri, Sat and Sun (high temps near 80 for Den/Bou, 60s in the mountains)

First image shows the 6-10 day outlook from NOAA, second image is the outlook for the next three months (Apr, May, June). Third image is the current drought monitor for CO. Fourth image shows forecast wind-gusts at 4pm tomorrow from latest HRRR model.

Later tonight or tomorrow we will look at the current snowpack as we are now basically at the.