The impact of recent rains on Colorado's drought: Denver7, CPR climate chat

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]This is Colorado Matters from CPR News.

[00:00:02]I'm Ryan Warner. Let's check back in with Chief Meteorologist at Denver 7, Lisa Hidalgo. Hi, Lisa.

[00:00:09]>> Hi.

[00:00:10]>> Let's begin with all the recent moisture. What has it done for us?

[00:00:15]>> It's been good. Don't get me wrong. It it hasn't changed many of our numbers or our drought conditions, but it's been nice that people have been able to turn off their sprinklers.

[00:00:24]Uh that helps, right? In the big picture, it's going to green things up nicely. So, I mean, any amount of rain we can get. And you know, we're not talking just one afternoon of it. This is solid 3 days of some gray weather and some and some good moisture, over an inch in some cases.

[00:00:37]>> Over an inch, all right. Uh so, let's speak specifically. You said it's not moving numbers dramatically, but can we look at drought and snowpack? I'd had high hopes for snowpack because Trail Ridge Road may not be open for a while.

[00:00:54]There was so much snow in Rocky Mountain National Park.

[00:00:57]>> Yeah, it doesn't do much to change that.

[00:00:58]I mean, you look at some of the the recent numbers, and we're still talking about snowpack numbers that the worst that we've seen in in potentially over 40 years. So, it helps in certain spots at small times when it comes to that, but it's not going to change those overall numbers.

[00:01:12]>> Okay. And the drought? Have you looked at the drought monitor?

[00:01:14]>> Uh drought monitor comes out every Thursday. Data is taken every Tuesday.

[00:01:19]So, we were kind of hoping after that last snow that we had seen, it was going to really help, especially I mean, in the mountains, we had what? Over 2 feet in some cases. It didn't I'm not seeing a a huge change. When you look week to week at that drought monitor map, it it just hasn't changed much. There's some still extreme and exceptional spots out west.

[00:01:36]>> That's just because the deficit we came into these storms with was so profound.

[00:01:43]>> Exactly. I mean, when you're coming into you know, we were looking at our snowpack peaking more than a month earlier than it typically does. So, you know, we were already looking at rough numbers. And we knew that, right? We were watching these storms coming in through the winter knowing that we weren't making up those numbers. So, we kind of knew we were going to be in this spot.

[00:02:01]>> I'm so out of it in terms of the calendar because you know, it got warm so early.

[00:02:09]Then we had those spring storms. The The rain we've been seeing, and there's been some of it on the front range. There's been a little of it in Grand Junction as well.

[00:02:20]Is that typical? I don't know what typical is anymore.

[00:02:24]>> I mean, yeah. You're right. It used to be that we had a fire season in Colorado. Now we don't. Now it's it's year-round. As we get into typically May, June, July are our wettest months.

[00:02:35]And we get to, you know, some of the monsoon storms that start to pop up here, especially as we get in to late June and early July. So, yeah, we typically do get some pretty good systems with this. Now, where we're getting the official measurement, you know, a lot of the numbers that I'll tell you are out at DIA, but some neighborhoods could get more, some will get a little bit less, but yeah, this is a pretty typical to start to see some some heavier showers.

[00:02:57]>> Do you think this moves the needle at all on fire risk?

[00:03:01]>> Unfortunately, no. I mean, everything is good in a sense that it it grows, and then we get a lot of green, we get some green days, you know, and areas, but then a lot of that can dry out and burn up. What we're going to be really watching out for is the moisture that comes here in the next few months.

[00:03:18]Obviously, as we get closer to monsoon season, does that ramp up? Does that help us in that case? But at this point, no. I mean, we're still looking at potentially more fires than we would typically get in an average year, which is estimated between about 6,000 and 7,000.

[00:03:33]>> Our colleagues at Denver Right report that Denver is drafting a massive evacuation plan that for the first time includes wildfires. You know, I think of the Marshall Fire in Boulder County that demonstrated to us that plains communities are also at risk. And no doubt that is fueling some of Denver's interest in an evacuation plan around wildfires. Were there lessons for you from the Marshall fire?

[00:04:03]>> I think just that, don't discount your location. That you know, I think when we talk about wildfires, you know, we put that information out on the news. It's generally large fires burning in the mountains, right? That's usually what our viewers will see.

[00:04:18]I mean, but you look back and five of the top the biggest wildfires that we've had here in Colorado have been within the last decade. So we've seen conditions dry out and these fires get bigger and and wild and and in places that we wouldn't typically see them. So I think that is was the biggest thing for me. The takeaway was that there are tips that we can give to our viewers to keep those along the Front Range safe. Things that maybe you know, people didn't think that's not going to happen down here, but but it did.

[00:04:45]>> What was an example of something you brought to the audience?

[00:04:48]>> Well, you know, I think when we bring up red flag warning after you know, day after day after day, people it's the kind of that that boy who cried wolf scenario that does it just go in and out and people don't recognize what that means. What it means is on those days a fire doesn't have to start, but if it does start, it could rapidly spread. So I think it is we have to bring it out to the viewers that every little bit of I can't tell you how many people I see either throw a cigarette out the window or something just as simple as even like a candle on your patio. Things that we all just have to be more aware of now.

[00:05:20]>> The tropical Pacific.

[00:05:23]We should let's go to the tropical Pacific.

[00:05:25]>> Oh, let's do it.

[00:05:26]>> It's in a neutral state. So I want to go back to a question that we have discussed it seems often in the last few months. Who is coming to dinner? La Nina or El Nino and why does it matter?

[00:05:39]>> It matters I mean, we need we need some moisture and we've been talking about potentially coming out of this neutral phase to an El Nino. At this point, it looks like now climatologically speaking, 82% chance of an El Nino starting to take over here late May through July.

[00:05:55]>> So, more likely than not that El Nino, the the the boy child is coming.

[00:06:00]>> Exactly. And then, more like even more likely than not, uh December through February, about a 96% chance, which is really good because that's going to then fuel more snow, bigger, stronger storms this coming winter. So, hopefully we have the exact opposite of what we just had.

[00:06:16]>> All right. That is uh more in our favor than not that moisture is on the way?

[00:06:23]>> Yes.

[00:06:25]>> Okay.

[00:06:26]>> [laughter] >> The short The short answer is yes.

[00:06:30]>> All right.

[00:06:31]You're supposed to talk. It's the radio, Lisa.

[00:06:33]>> [laughter] >> I have a self-care question before we go.

[00:06:36]>> Oh.

[00:06:37]>> Because you're confronted every day with the realities of climate change.

[00:06:42]You're also a parent, right? You have to think about what your children are facing. How do you take care of yourself without putting your head in the sand?

[00:06:50]Is it just mahjong? Folks, she's kind of a crazy mahjong player.

[00:06:57]>> I really am. I was going to say, well, I moisturize and I hydrate. First of all, no, but uh you're right, it's hard. I cuz I read a lot both on the side of climate change and you know, how that impacts my daily job, but I also I also try to read some fun books on the side. I like to I I read a lot. In fact, we have a Denver 7 Book Club. We meet the third Wednesday of every month at either the Tattered Cover there at Colfax or Aspen Grove.

[00:07:21]>> Wait, I have a book club called Turn the Page. Do we have competing book clubs?

[00:07:25]>> I think we might What What is your most recent book?

[00:07:28]>> We are reading Dizzy, a woman's account of waking up with extreme dizziness and the medical mystery that unfolds over years as she he to solve it.

[00:07:41]>> We just read the names.

[00:07:43]Uh Florence Knapp wrote this book. It is written in It is all about what are the implications of what you name your children. And it goes through this woman's life and the three different names that she chose and how that changed the the whole family trajectory.

[00:07:57]It's It was fascinating.

[00:07:58]>> Okay, so reading.

[00:07:59]>> Reading or you write mahjong. I'm I have been playing a lot of mahjong.