What a difference a week can make. The epic rainstorm that hovered over Colorado鈥檚 Front Range effectively quashed a lingering drought. But Climate scientists caution against rejoicing too quickly though.
This has happened before. Ask state climatologist Nolan Doesken about Colorado鈥檚 history of flash floods and he can rattle them off in a flurry: Sept. 1938; June 1965; May 1969. All of those had some impact on the Front Range.
鈥淏ut this is a big one,鈥� Doesken said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a run of the mill, every year, every few years kind of event. It鈥檚 the kind of thing that somewhere in the state might occur more than once in a century, but at any given location the severity is something that you may not see for hundreds of years.鈥�
Rain totals have been tallied. But Doesken says a full picture of the flooding won鈥檛 be available for some time, making it difficult to compare the storm to other flash flooding events in Colorado. During this storm, rivers flowed with such intensity that stream gauges were damaged or destroyed.
Some of those other flooding events came after dry spells, Doesken said, and returned to drought not too long after.
鈥淭he lesson is, we don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 going to happen next. And there鈥檚 no guarantee that we鈥檙e out of the drought woods,鈥� said Doesken.
The Front Range was drenched. The Western Slope wasn鈥檛. Neither was the southeastern corner, a pocket of which is still categorized as being in extreme or exceptional drought.
鈥淭here鈥檚 now this concern that maybe we鈥檙e going to see more big rains and more flooding, but the reality is, that weather events happen and then we revert back to our regular seasonal cycles. With plenty of meteorological ups and down to go with it,鈥� Doesken said.
This storm doesn鈥檛 mean much for the state鈥檚 system of either. A few were filled to their max by torrential rains, but Doesken says water managers had to push much of it downstream. Small agricultural reservoirs kept their diversions sealed off major rivers to avoid being filled up with the murky, debris-filled runoff.
Many of the Front Range鈥檚 primary reservoirs are on the western side of the Continental Divide, which saw little precipitation from this storm.
Doesken says parts of the state are in much better shape in terms of drought than they were a year, or even a week, ago.
Still, that鈥檚 little solace to farmers in the short-term, many of whom along the , saw flood damage to buildings, equipment and land.
