An astonishing year for heat in Colorado

Heat across state surpassed old record set in 1934 by two degrees. And, of course, snowpack was worst ever, too.

by Allen Best

“Holy crap,” said one of my acquaintances in Colorado when I passed along the news that Colorado, during the last water year, had an average temperature of 2 degrees Fahrenheit above the previous record year of 1934.

For me, it wasn’t a great surprise. I remember all too well trying to write stories in 95 degree heat during summer in my former home/office. But it was a sucker punch nonetheless.

If you grew up in Colorado, particularly on the Great Plains, you likely grew up hearing about the Dust Bowl years. “I never saw a cloud that dark since the Dust Bowl,” my grandmother said at supper one evening in maybe 1960 at my grandparents’ farmhouse north of Sterling. The thunderstorm that afternoon had been memorable.

The 1930s were also very, very warm. This, many have said, is clear evidence that the current warming is just part of a phase.

But this new report from Colorado State University researchers speaks to just how extraordinary these times are. The report comes after the conclusion of the 2025-26 water year, which starts in October and ends in September.

“Water year 2026 was one for the record books in Colorado,” the report says. “It was our warmest on record by a substantial margin, and it was also one of our driest.”

The mountain snowpack, the lowest ever, had implications across many sectors, from agriculture and wildfire to human health and recreation, the report continues.

Once again, the temperatures continue to amaze. Colorado had four months — December and January, March and August — that were warmest ever. But 11 of the 12 months ranked among the top-15 warmest of those months on record.

The researchers found that, statewide, temperatures were 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit above the averages seen between 1991-2020.

Every year brings new records, both highs and lows. This past water year was no exception. But the CSU team found that daily warm records (both for record high temperatures and record warm lows) occurred with 21.7 times greater frequency than cold records (both record lows and cool highs). This, they reported, was the most unbalanced this ratio has ever been.

During my travels last summer, I saw evidence of this extraordinary warmth from Meeker to La Jara. In Meeker, a resident said that overnight low temperatures ordinarily killed the idea of trying to grow tomatoes. This year, nights stayed warm.

By early August, Larry Zaragoza was able to pick a few ears of corn in his backyard garden in La Jara.The town sits in the San Lis Valley at an elevation of 7,700 feet, a place usually too cool to grow corn.

At La Jara, in the San Luis Valley about 20 miles from the New Mexico border, I happened to once again meet Larry Zaragoza, then the town manager. He has since retired. He, too, spoke of the exceptional warmth. There, despite an elevation of 7,600 feet, it’s possible to grow some vegetables, but rarely corn.

It was still early in August, but already he had a robust crop of corn in his backyard garden. He had, he said, succeeded in that only one time before in the last 20 years.

Russ Schumacher, the Colorado state climatologist and a faculty member in CSU’s department of atmospheric science, said the key message is not that 2026 is the new normal. In another 10 to 20 years, this past year will likely still stand out as extreme. “At the same time, the chances for extremely warm years are increasing as warming continues.”

At a forum in Jefferson County last evening devoted to the Colorado River, Colorado State University’s Brad Udall warned that years like this will not only become common but they will be worse.

At his wheat farm near Wray, Gregg Stults shared that the exceptional heat has continued into autumn. “Several evenings in the last month it was over 90 degrees at 9 o’clock at night. That was just the ambient temperature outside.”

July was the hottest month, as it usually is. But July 27 set the record for the hottest single day for Colorado. The previous record? A year before, on July 21.

The warmest-ever days for October were set for October (one), December (2 days), and March (9 days). August had three warmest ever days, too.

Another way of looking at this heat is the number of 90 degree days during the water year. Boulder had 57 of those days, compared to the average of 33 during the last 30 or so years. Lamar had 97, compared to 73 for the longer-term record. Steamboat Springs had 29. The average was 6 for the 1991-2020 period.

Precipitation across most of Colorado was below average during the water year. A few wetter periods balanced out drier stretches, especially in the San Juan Mountains and parts of the Eastern Plains.

For agriculture, though, timing can be everything. April precipitation is crucial for both crops and grazing ranges on the eastern plains, and it was way below average this year. “Coupled with much above-average temperatures, drought quickly developed and agricultural lands suffered severe impacts,” the report says.

Of note — but not in the report — is the amount of groundwater extracted, likely in part because of both drought but also the intense heat that dried out soils. This has had a huge impact on the declining aquifers of the San Luis Valley but also the Republican River Basin.

Drought was particularly significant in parts of Garfield and Pitkin counties. By one measure, those counties have suffered drought for 15 straight months.

In Aspen, bears have been commonplace on city streets for the last 15 or 20 years. This year, though, was exceptional. Greg Poschman, a nearly life-long resident of Aspen, attributes the omnipresent bears to the near total absence of food for them at higher elevations. Service berries were shriveled and chokecherries were non-existent. “Bears were coming into town because they had no choice.”

Even without bears, hiking around Aspen, producing crackling sounds when stepped on dried grass, was uncanny, he said.

As for the Roaring Fork River, it was nothing that the name implies. The streamflow reduced to 7 cubic feet per second this summer and the temperature of the water hit 70 degrees. Poschman hopes this does not become accepted as the new normal.

By one broad measure, the Palmer Drought Severity Index, this past year was the worst on record. At the end of August, it was only slightly worse than 2002, another memorable year for low precipitation. It was hot, too, but not near as hot as this year.

As for snowpack, it was the lowest on record for Colorado. The peak was 51% of average and about a month early, followed by rapid melting in the unprecedented March heat wave, the CSU research team reports.

You may remember that month. Above 90 degrees in Fort Collins but everywhere warm. Along the Elk River, Jay Fetcher has been carefully recording the earliest date at which snow had disappeared from the hay meadow on his ranch northwest of Steamboat Springs. This year that date was March 2, breaking the last record of March 24, which was set just a few years ago. See: “Along the Elk River, earlier springs and more uncertainty.” Big Pivots, June 5, 2026.

Spring has been rapidly advancing in a general way. Of course, there are exceptions. And even this year spring was cooler, especially compared with the crazy heat of the winter months. That coolness and marginal precipitation in April and May allowed Colorado to mostly escape the massive wildfires of some other years, said Udall at the forum sponsored by the Colorado Renewable Energy Society.

Along the White River, at Meeker, a retired physician and teacher has been tracking the earlier springs and declining flows. See: “A doctor, the data & Colorado’s White River.” Big Pivots, June 15, 2026.

What will this coming winter bring? Rain is falling, causing flooding around Telluride and other San Juan communities. The peaks have snow on them. But keep in mind, that’s how the last water year started out. While some hope that the El Niño brings the snows that last winter largely lacked, the records show many El Niño winters of the past have been yawns.