The monsoon season is off to a promising but intense start in Montezuma County.
It began right on schedule, on July 13, according to longtime local weather observer James Andrus.
He said in just nine days, as of Thursday morning, it had delivered 1.43 inches of rain in Cortez.
That amount has already surpassed the historic average for the month of July of 1.25 inches. Much of that moisture fell on Tuesday afternoon during a tempestuous rain and hail storm.
Andrus told KSJD that rain then was falling at a rate of two inches per hour, although it only lasted for a half hour. During that time, a total of 0.58 of an inch poured down.
Marble-sized hail knocked leaves off trees and destroyed many local gardens, and fierce winds blew down some trees.
Andrus said it was the most severe hailstorm he had seen since August 1995, more than 30 years ago. He estimated the wind speed on Main Street at 40 miles per hour.
July was also noticeable for seeing a high temperature of 102 degrees on July 11, which tied the Cortez all-time high temperature. That record has been tied numerous times in the past, according to Andrus.
Cortez City Manager Drew Sanders told KSJD the wind and hail caused private property damage city-wide, with the worst around Tucker Lane and Brandon’s Gate on the city’s north side.
He said some city facilities had minor roof leaks and the golf course sustained some hail damage to the greens.
Many branches were broken in city parks and a couple of trees near the Police Department were blown down.
Sanders said it will probably take until Friday afternoon to finish cleaning up the branch and leaf litter, but he praised the city crews for working to do it rapidly.
“They were on it right that afternoon after the storm,” Sanders said, “and it looked significantly better by 6 or 7 o’clock that night.”
Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation Jenny Bandi told KSJD in an email that the following damage occurred in the city:
Centennial Park had a lot of branches knocked down from the Cottonwood, Willow and Locust trees. Parks team extracted roughly 6 1-ton flatbed truck loads and 6 flatbed trailer loads of 6"-small limbs. There was no significant damage to the majority of the trees in Centennial besides the Police Department. The PD lost 2 full grown Spruce trees and large limbs off of one of the large Cottonwood trees.
- There was a large Russian Olive that was uprooted and toppled on the North side of the outdoor pool. Majority of the tree was mulched, and the remaining large sections are going to a local resident who plans to mill the trunk and make furniture.
- A large Cottonwood in Veteran's park lost a very large branch but was trimmed and mulched. There were many other smaller branches and limbs throughout Veterans. The drainage ditch collected lots of debris including mud, grass, leaves, and small limbs. Parks team removed roughly 4-1 ton flatbed truck loads of limbs.
- Parque de Vida had most of its tree damage on the North side along Empire and the West side along Mildred. The damage was mostly fallen limbs from the Cottonwood and Locust trees.
- Montezuma Ave. and Park saw mostly smaller limbs from the Elm trees though no significant damage.
- The pocket parks had minimal limbs, mostly from the large Elm trees.
- Denny Lake had lots of smaller limbs from the Cottonwood and Elm trees. The restroom was flooded though no significant damage occurred. The playground was flooded and all of the wood chips were washed out, though there was not any significant damage to the playground.
- The dog park lost a large portion of the big shade tree.
- McAndrew's field and the PDV restroom flooded, mostly resulting in sediment and flushed out landscape mulch. No significant damage.
