KSJD Local News - March 7, 2025

The Four Corners saw a little more moisture than usual falling from the sky last month. But the area remains in moderate drought. Longtime local weather observer James Andrus reports that February’s precipitation was 124 percent of normal at 1.19 inches. However, he notes that the moisture “gift” came from just a single storm in the middle of the month, and the rest of the month was nearly dry. Andrus also reports that the month of February saw five new daily-high temperatures set but no daily-low temperatures broken. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says extremely dry conditions plagued the Four Corners states last month, and this has led to deepening snow deficits in many basins. There’s hopeful news, though. Snow has fallen in the mountains for the past few days, with at least a foot reportedly dropping on Wolf Creek Pass, Red Mountain Pass, and Coal Bank Pass in southwestern Colorado. That should help the two water basins in the southwest corner of the state – the Upper Rio Grande and the San Miguel-Dolores-Animas-San Juan. Both of them were reporting snow water equivalents at about two-thirds of normal before the storm. The 30-day forecast is for normal temperatures and precipitation in the Four Corners, but the 90-day forecast says to expect warmer and drier-than-normal weather.