March madness is a good description for last month’s climate in Cortez, according to longtime local weather observer Jim Andrus.
In an email, he said March’s temperatures were so warm – reaching 86 degrees on March 22 – that they resembled May’s, and the precipitation was more like that of June, which is typically the driest month locally.
In March, just eight one-hundredths of an inch of precipitation fell, only nine percent of normal. That brought year-to-date precipitation to 63 percent of average as the end of March, according to Andrus.
Cortez’s balmy, dry winter reflects the broader picture across the West, where record-breaking heat led to a record-low snowpack.
As of April 3, the snow-water equivalent in the San Miguel-Dolores-Animas-San Juan basin was at 18 percent of normal. The Gunnison basin was at 23 percent and the Upper Rio Grande at a dismal 16 percent.
Though they have not eliminated the drought, recent storms have helped a little and have prompted Montezuma County to delay implementing a fire ban. Earlier this month, Cortez was moved from being considered in extreme drought to the slightly better designation of severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Many municipalities have already adopted watering restrictions. Durango has enacted Stage 1 mandatory water restrictions. Cortez is currently under voluntary restrictions but will move into mandatory restrictions next month.
Lawns suck up much of the water in cities in the Mountain West, according to CNN, sometimes accounting for 60 or 70 percent of total demand. Kentucky bluegrass, which is commonly used for lawns, is not native to the West, has short roots, and demands a great deal of water in order to stay green.
Many municipalities, including Cortez, offer turf replacement programs that pay people to remove portions of their lawns and replace them with less-water-demanding vegetation.
The dire water situation in the West has drawn the attention of numerous national media outlets, including PBS, High Country News, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. It raises concerns about wildfires, invasion by bark beetles, and how the seven states in the Colorado River basin will work out future management of the river’s dwindling water.
It’s unclear when the situation may improve. “Both our 30-day and 90-day climate outlooks offer no relief from this situation as both outlooks promise above-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation,” Andrus wrote in his email.
The Washington Post reports that there’s a good chance of a super El Niño climate pattern coming soon. Super El Niños reportedly occur every decade or so.
This could mean a hotter-than-normal summer in the West but it could also bring more moisture.
“It can't get here soon enough,” Andrus wrote.
