Brief by Central Staff
Climate – November 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Weather in most mountain towns remained warm, seemingly unseasonably so, through September. And experienced local eyes seemed to think the aspen began changing colors later than usual, too.
That jibes with a new report by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization. It says that an examination of weather records reveals the last five years were the hottest of the past 110 years across much of the West.
Temperatures were 2.1º Fahrenheit higher in the Upper Colorado River Basin, 2.4º warmer in the Rio Grande Basin, and 1.5º warmer in both the Missouri and Columbia River basins.
These temperatures, the report says, “coincided with and worsened the effects of the recent West-wide drought.”
The report also concluded that the greatest warming has occurred in January, February, and March. That should be no surprise in Vail and Aspen, where rain has occurred several times during mid-winter for the last several years, something that almost never occurred in decades past.
And in Salida, we enjoyed the latest “first-killing-frost-date” in memory. Our tomatoes, morning glories, and marigolds thrived until Oct. 6. The average date of the first lethal frost in Salida is Sept. 12; it’s Aug. 22 in Gunnison and Aug. 26 in Leadville.
