Another (near) Lake Wobegone year

Water years are different from calendar years, but in both temperatures continue to rise in Colorado

We have calendar years, but the water years begin in October, when the snows start flying. Usually, that is, in a very general way.

The last water year in Colorado started out hot. October 2024 ranked as the hottest October in Colorado in records going back 130 years, reports the Colorado Climate Center. And December 2024 was third warmest on record.

January was an anomaly to this trend of rising heat. It was below-average chilly.

Most of the other months of the water year also had above-average temperatures. Taken as a whole, Colorado’s statewide average wa 10th warmest among the 130 years of record. It was a full 1.0 degree F compared to the average from 1991 to 2020.

The heat was particularly discernible on the Western Slope and in north-central Colorado. As for 90-and-above days, Cortez had 64 days (compared to the average 41). And Grand Junction 81 (compared to the average 68).

Steamboat Springs had 8 days (6), and Boulder 39 (32). Rocky Ford bucked the heat trend. It had 70 days (81).

With 70-plus temperature in metro Denver during mid-November, we have to wonder where this water year will end up.

You can find the report here.

As for the headline, you will remember Lake Wobegon from Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion, where all the children were above average. (And as for the photo — it was taken in southeast Colorado during August).