There are possible three major components: La Niña, local weather change and sheer, dumb luck.
DENVER — It feels just like the summer time that simply will not finish.
Temperatures soared – once more – on Monday into the low 70s in Denver, with a excessive of 72° at Denver Worldwide Airport. Pueblo set a file excessive of 75° on Monday, and Colorado Springs got here inside a level of setting a day by day file as effectively.
And this follows an exceptionally heat and dry October. And September. And August. And July. And June.
On high of that, it nonetheless hasn’t snowed in Denver, and the town has formally obtained lower than 2 inches of whole precipitation since June 1, the driest almost six-month stretch on file.
So what’s behind all of this continued heat and dry climate? There are three key causes, together with a slew of smaller issues behind this uncommon dry and heat stretch.
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Sea-surface temperatures throughout the Central Pacific create a domino impact of world climate. When these temperatures run colder than common, it results in what’s generally known as La Niña, an general climate sample that favors drier and hotter than common falls and winters in Colorado, and particularly throughout the southern half of the state.
This fall, at the very least thus far, has performed out in basic La Niña style.
The Pacific Northwest has seen relentless rain and snow, inflicting flooding in Washington State and Oregon.
In the meantime, the Southwest has usually been locked in a dry and delicate sample, undoubtedly contributing to Colorado’s delicate and dry fall thus far.
Sure, local weather change is at work right here. Denver is in the midst of its warmest June-November on file, and temperatures have persistently scorched going again to the early summer time.
A warming local weather is little doubt boosting day by day excessive temperatures by a couple of levels, and in flip including to our constant summer time and fall heat.
To ensure that it to remain as heat and as dry as it has been, notably throughout jap Colorado, there’s one other ultimate issue: luck.
This largely pertains to the snowless streak in Denver, the place we have had a couple of shut brushes with measurable snowfall, however none of them have come by way of but.
A progressive climate sample is a part of that, which means primarily westerly winds produce heat, downsloping winds on the floor in Denver and throughout jap Colorado specifically.
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General, storms simply lacking Colorado and the Entrance Vary, together with temperatures maybe a tick too heat for snow, are all enjoying a job right here. And good outdated dumb luck is behind a few of this as effectively.
The tip consequence? A unending fall, or so it appears.
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